Quantitative aspects of electrocardiograms of adults in a Jamaican rural population

ABSTRACT

The values of selected measurements from scalar electrocardiograms of a representative Jamaican population are reported. The tracings were obtained from 1067 adults aged 35 to 64 years, just under 90 percent of 1200 men and women selected randomly from a defined community of a hilly inland rural area. The participants were mostly small farmers, and their womenfolk, and they were of African origin. Measurements included intervals, axes, and amplitudes and three indices of left heart involvement-Morris's index of left atrial disease, Estes' score for left ventricular hypertrophy, and the Sokolow-Lyon criteria. Their distributions are compared with data from similar epidemiological studies and provide values for an ethnic group for which there are few population-based reports. The striking feature of these tracings was the high proportion with evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, particularly those of men. The relation between certain electrocardiographic characteristics and age, body built, arterial pressure, and heart rate was investigated by multiple regression analysis, and this showed that little of the variation of most electrocardiographic measurements were explained by these variables. (AU)