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Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007

17. bis 21.09.2007, Augsburg

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Sex-differences of ECG findings in a sample from the general population

Meeting Abstract

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  • Marcus Dörr - Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Henry Völzke - Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Stephan B. Felix - Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität, Greifswald

Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007. Augsburg, 17.-21.09.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. Doc07gmds503

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2007/07gmds503.shtml

Published: September 6, 2007

© 2007 Dörr et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: To obtain estimates of the prevalence of ECG abnormalities in a sample from the general population and to investigate possible relations to age, sex, and lifestyle related factors.

Methods: Data were obtained from the ECG records of 1825 men and 1895 women participating in the Study of Health in Pomerania. All tracings were coded on the basis of Minnesota code criteria. Logistic regression models were used to calculate prevalences with respect to confounders.

Results: Prevalences of abnormal ECG findings rose exponentially with age in both sexes. Major ECG findings were observed in 11.1% of men and 8.1% of women, resulting in an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.36 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11-1.66). Likewise, the prevalence of minor ECG changes was higher among men (21.6% versus 16.6% in women; OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.11-1.49). Independent of age, smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and educational status, there were significantly higher prevalences of high R waves, atrioventricular block, right bundle branch block, any bundle branch block, and atrial fibrillation or flutter in men compared to women. In contrast, the adjusted prevalences of ischemic signs, Q/QS patterns, and T wave abnormalities were lower in men than in women.

Conclusions: Important ECG abnormalities were frequently found in this sample from the general population, and were strongly age related. Moreover, there were substantial sex-differences for some, but not all, abnormalities.