Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Sex-specific performance of electrocardiographic criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy in elite athletes
Authors' conclusion
In elite athletes, ECG-LVH criteria, except for QRS duration, lack diagnostic value for LVH in men. Voltage criteria may have diagnostic potential in women.
Study context
- Population
- Healthy elite athleteselite athletes (median age 25, 45% women)
- Participants
- 209 athletes
- Exposure
- Eight ECG-LVH criteria of voltages and products and QRS duration compared to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) indicators (indexed left ventricular mass (LVM) and maximum left ventricular wall thickness (maxLVWT))
- Outcome
- Sex-specific correlations (ρ) between ECG-LVH criteria and LVM/maxLVWT
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
| Group | Value | Correlation of ECG-LVH criteria with LVM or maxLVWT |
|---|---|---|
| Men | no meaningful correlations | |
| Women | correlation of all voltage and product criteria with LVM ρ = 0.25-0.45 |
Value
Men— not stated in the abstract
Womencorrelation of all voltage and product criteria with LVM ρ = 0.25-0.45
Correlation of ECG-LVH criteria with LVM or maxLVWT
Menno meaningful correlations
Women— not stated in the abstract
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Met one or more voltage criteria · men more frequently met one or more voltage criteria
P = 0.010
| Outcome | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Discriminative performance (AUROC) for LVM or maxLVWT | AUROC 0.63-0.73 | |
| QRS duration, LVM | 0.67 | — not stated in the abstract |
| QRS duration, maxLVWT | 0.74 | — not stated in the abstract |
| Sensitivity at 95% specificity (Peguero-Lo Presti, Cornell-, and Modified Sum of 12-Lead Product) | — not stated in the abstract | sensitivity 24%-29% |
— not stated in the abstract
- Discriminative performance (AUROC) for LVM or maxLVWT: In men, only QRS duration demonstrated discriminative performance
Precordial QRS voltages and extracellular volume
- Increased precordial QRS voltages independently correlated with lower extracellular volume
- β = −0.3 mV per %ECV, P < .001
- Overall
Original publication
Sex-specific performance of electrocardiographic criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy in elite athletes. Heart Rhythm. Published 8 May 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →