Widened QRS-T Angle May Be a Measure of Poor Ventricular Stretch During Exercise Among On-duty Firefighters.
Dillon J Dzikowicz, Mary G Carey
PMID 30520777WHAT IT FOUND
No clear blood pressure differences were seen among 111 firefighters grouped by an ECG measure called QRS-T angle, but a wider angle was linked with lower post-exercise diastolic blood pressure.
Key findings
01No statistically significant differences were found between QRS-T angle groups for pre-exercise, maximum exercise, post-exercise, or recovery blood pressure measures among 111 firefighters.
02A wider spatial QRS-T angle was significantly negatively correlated with post-exercise diastolic blood pressure (r = -0.261, p = 0.008).
03The widened QRS-T angle group contained only 6 firefighters, and combining it with the borderline group still produced no significant blood pressure differences.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The widened QRS-T angle group had only 6 firefighters, so that group was too small for stable comparisons. No echocardiography was performed, so left ventricular wall thickness and true ventricular stretch could not be confirmed. The correlations were modest, and the group blood pressure differences were not statistically significant. The data were from a cross-sectional secondary analysis, so they cannot show that a widened QRS-T angle causes poor ventricular stretch. The sample was on-duty firefighters, not a clinical patient group, although the authors suggest their overweight and hypertensive profile may resemble the general population.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural research support. The article text does not report author conflicts of interest or a specific funding statement.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat a widened QRS-T angle as a validated sign of poor ventricular stretch or left ventricular hypertrophy. The study had no significant differences between QRS-T angle groups and only a modest correlation with post-exercise diastolic blood pressure, and echocardiography was not used to confirm ventricular structure.