Prevalence of early repolarization patterns in a French military population at low cardiovascular risk: implications for preventive medicine.

BACKGROUND: Early repolarization pattern (ERP) associated with a risk of sudden death has recently been described. Very few studies have examined the prevalence of this pattern in a military population characterized by a predominance of young, active male subjects. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of ERP in a healthy military population free of heart disease but subjected to extreme and potentially arrhythmogenic physical activity.
METHODS: This prospective, multicenter study was carried out from November 2010 to November 2011 and included 746 individuals undergoing ECG screening; 466 were men (62.4%) and 280 were women (37.5%). Each ECG was interpreted twice by trained cardiologists.
RESULTS: The total prevalence of ERP was 13.8% (103/746); 16% (46/280) in women and 12% (57/466) in men (P > 0.05). It declined with age and the pattern of slurring in inferior location was the most common. Heart rate was significantly lower in military officers with ERP.
CONCLUSIONS: ERP was commonly found in this healthy military population. Preventing the risk of sudden death in this population requires systematic ECG screening, medical history analysis and clinical examination to identify symptomatic patients. ©2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.