Table 1. Patient baseline characteristics and clinical cardiac events.
| f-QRS (n = 20) |
J wave (n = 35) |
Normal ECG (n = 26) |
P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, years | 42 ± 18 | 36 ± 16 | 30 ± 16 | 0.597 |
| Male, n (%) | 16 (80.0%) | 32 (91.5%) | 15 (57.7%) | 0.007 |
| Body mass index, kg/m2 | 22 ± 3 | 22 ± 3 | 23 ± 4 | 0.607 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 3 (15%) | 2 (6%) | 3 (12%) | 0.509 |
| Hypertension | 4 (20%) | 4 (11%) | 5 (19%) | 0.612 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 0 (0%) | 2 (6%) | 0 (0%) | 0.260 |
| Current smoker | 6 (30%) | 6 (17%) | 8 (31%) | 0.245 |
| Family History of SCD | 1 (5%) | 5 (14.3%) | 1 (3.8%) | 0.751 |
| History of CVA | 0 (0%) | 1 (2.9%) | 0 (0%) | 0.514 |
| Recurrent VF episode | 10 (50%) | 16 (45.7%) | 3 (11.5%) | 0.028 |
| Recurrent VF episode (J wave group combined with f-QRS group) |
26 (47.3%) | 3 (11.5%) | 0.009 | |
| Cardiac death | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
The values are presented as mean ± SD or number of patients (%).
f-QRS, fragmented QRS complexes; SCD, sudden cardiac death; CVA, cerebrovascular accident; VF, ventricular fibrillation; ICD, Implantable cardioverter defibrillator
Normal ECG, neither f-QRS nor J wave
Clinical cardiac events = cardiac arrest, syncope, and recurrent VF episode recorded in ICD