Left ventricular hypertrophy: relationship of echocardiographic and electrocardiographic findings in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

ABSTRACT

Diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy is important in patients with cardiac disease. To test the correlation of echocardiographic and electrocardiographic findings for diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy in Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy (IDC), 18 patients with proven IDC were examined. There were 15 males and 3 females, ages ranged from 22-60 years (mean 43 +/- 10.7). LV mass index ranged from 134.4-421.2 g/m2 (mean 187.8 +/- 68.6). All 18 patients had LVH by echocardiography but only 10 patients (55.6%) had LVH by using ECG Romhilt-Estes scoring system. The correlation between echocardiographic and electrocardiographic findings for diagnosis LVH was not significant (r = 0.026; p = 0.935) and echocardiography was better than electrocardiography for diagnosis of LVH in IDC.