Electrocardiographic T Wave Abnormalities and the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death: The Finnish Perspective.

The identification of patients at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) is still a significant challenge to clinicians and scientists. Noninvasive identification of high-risk patients has been of great interest, and several ventricular depolarization and repolarization abnormalities in the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) have been associated with increased vulnerability to lethal ventricular arrhythmias. Several benign and pathological conditions can induce changes in repolarization detected as alteration of the ST segment or T wave. Changes in the ST segment and T waves can be early markers of an underlying cardiovascular disease, and even minor ST-T abnormalities have predicted reduced survival and increased risk of SCD in the adult population. In this review, we will discuss the current knowledge of the SCD risk with standard 12-lead ECG T wave abnormalities in the general population, and possible T wave changes in various cardiac conditions predisposing to SCD.