Usefulness of Measuring Total 12-Lead QRS Voltage in Diagnosing Cardiovascular Disease - Hardcover

Roberts, William C

Hardcover

ISBN 13: 9798886800906

Publisher: Baylor University Medical Center, 2022

Synopsis

When in medical school (1954-1958), I became interested in the electrocardiogram. I wondered why the definition of "low QRS voltage" included only three leads (I, II, III) when the electrocardiograms at the time included 12 leads. I learned that the definition of "low QRS voltage" was created when the standard electrocardiogram consisted of only three leads (I, II, III) and it was defined as total QRS voltage as ≤ 15 mm (using 10 mm as the standard). In the early 1980s my colleagues and I began measuring QRS voltage in all 12 leads in patients with a variety of cardiac conditions. All patients included in our studies had come to necropsy or to heart transplantation and thus we could compare the total 12-lead QRS voltage to heart weight in all the patients studied. We learned that the patients with the biggest hearts (>1000 g) had the highest QRS voltage, and patients with the smallest hearts, in general, had the lowest 12-lead QRS voltage. Total 12-lead QRS voltage was particularly helpful in diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, the carcinoid syndrome, and, of course, cardiac amyloidosis. The obesity epidemic has reduced total QRS voltage in many of us.

This volume collects 18 articles on this topic published between 1982 and 2021.

-William C. Roberts, MD

Edition details

• Publisher: Baylor University Medical Center
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798886800906
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144