Table 3.

Diagnostic value of different methods to detect left ventricular systolic dysfunction where previous screening brought the unconditional probability of systolic dysfunction to 12%

Type of test	Left ventricular systolic dysfunction			Predictive value		Specificity (%)	Sensitivity (%)	Negative likelihood ratio	P value
	Yes	No		Positive	Negative
QRS or ST-T changes, or both, on electrocardiography:
Yes	13	49		21	97	56	87	0.24	0.005
No	2	62
Treated for congestive heart failure:
Yes	9	34		21	93	69	60	0.58	0.050
No	6	77
Confirmed myocardial infarction:
Yes	7	24		23	92	78	47	0.68	0.073
No	8	87
N-terminal atrial natriuretic peptide>0.8 nmol/l:
Yes	6	12		33	92	89	43	0.62	0.006
No	8	95
Heart rate>diastolic blood pressure:
Yes	8	15		35	93	86	53	0.55	0.001
No	7	95

Left ventricular systolic dysfunction is roughly equal to an ejection fraction⩽0.45. Minnesota codes for Q wave (1.1-1.3), left bundle branch block (7.1), ST-T abnormalities (4.1-4.4; 5.1-5.4; 9.2) and left ventricular hypertrophy (3.1; 3.3; 3.4) were used.⁹