14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-163

QT dispersion in elite athletes with and without ventricular arrhythmias

Alessandro Biffi, Luisa Verdile, Antonio Pelliccia, Antonio Spataro, Fredrick Fernando, Giuseppe Marcello, Roberto Ciardo, Giovanni Caselli.
Sport Science Institute, Department of Medicine, CONI, Rome, Italy

Introduction

The dispersion of QT intervals between the electrocardiographic leads is an indirect measure of heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization¹ and several studies suggest that an increase in QT dispersion is associated with increased risk of arrhythmic events^2,3. Left ventricular hypertrophy is associated with increased QT dispersion and increases mortality in hypertensive patients⁴. Left ventricular hypertrophy is also a characteristic feature of athlete’s heart. It is not known how athlete’s heart affects electrocardiographic QT dispersion, but sudden unexpected deaths occur in athletes⁵. Therefore, in this study we compared QT dispersion with left ventricular mass in elite athletes with and without ventricular arrhythmias.