Changes of the T-wave amplitude and angle: an early marker of altered ventricular repolarization in hypertension.

BACKGROUND: The heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization is an important proarrhythmic factor. QT dispersion has been proposed to reflect the inhomogeneity of ventricular repolarization, but a poor reproducibility limits its clinical applicability. Reliable noninvasive methods to quantify abnormalities in ventricular repolarization are still lacking. The T-loop morphology analysis is a novel method aimed at quantifying ventricular repolarization. HYPOTHESIS: To test the ability of the T-loop morphology analysis to discriminate between hypertensive patients and healthy subjects, 105 hypertensive patients (mean age 63.6 +/- 12.3 years) and 110 healthy controls (mean age 49.7 +/- 14.3 years) were evaluated.
METHODS: The maximum QT interval (QT maximum), the minimum QT interval (QT minimum), and their difference (QT dispersion) were calculated from a digitally recorded 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) in both study groups. X, Y, and Z leads were reconstructed from the 12-lead ECG, and the amplitude of the maximum T vector (T amplitude) and the angle between the maximum T vector and X axis (T angle) were calculated from the projection of the T loop in the frontal plane.
RESULTS: T amplitude (p < 0.001), T angle (p = 0.05), and QT dispersion (p = 0.04) were significantly different between hypertensive patients and controls, while QT maximum (p = 0.14) and QT minimum (p = 0.35) did not differ between the groups. T amplitude was the only marker which differed between hypertensive patients without ECG criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy and controls (p = 0.002).
CONCLUSIONS: T-loop features and particularly T amplitude are significantly different between hypertensive patients and healthy controls and may serve as early markers of repolarization abnormalities in a hypertensive population.