Abstract
In 1940 Wiggers described disparity in repolarization times across the ventricles as a marker of susceptibility for ventricular arrhythmias (1). This observation was followed by many attempts to quantify those differences and to determine their prognostic significance. Several techniques were used to measure duration and disparity of repolarization such as body surface mapping (2,3), endocardial monophasic action potential recordings (4), and epicardial (5–7) recordings. This was followed by endeavors to obtain that information from the 12-lead electrocardiogram by measuring the QT interval. This brought the suggestion and hope that measuring the QT interval in different ECG leads looking for QT dispersion could be of help to identify cardiac patients at increased risk of dying suddenly (8–14). However, the idea could not be confirmed in prospective studies by Zabel et al. (15) in patients after a myocardial infarction and by Brendorp et al. (16) in patients with heart failure.
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Wellens, H.J., Zipes, D.P. (2003). Ventricular Repolarization and the Identification of the Sudden Death Candidate. In: Gussak, I., Antzelevitch, C., Hammill, S.C., Shen, WK., Bjerregaard, P. (eds) Cardiac Repolarization. Contemporary Cardiology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-362-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-362-0_1
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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