Prevalence of QRS prolongation in a community hospital cohort of patients with heart failure and its relation to left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Adverse outcomes in heart failure occur more frequently with QRS prolongation. The results of our study have shown that 1/4 of community hospital patients with heart failure of sufficient severity leading to hospitalization have a QRS duration of > or =120 ms and that this degree of QRS prolongation is associated with substantially more severe left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, LV dilation, and mitral regurgitation.