TY - JOUR T1 - Gender differences between the Minnesota code and Novacode electrocardiographic prognostication of coronary heart disease in the cardiovascular health study. JF - Am J Cardiol Y1 - 2011 A1 - Zhang, Zhu-Ming A1 - Prineas, Ronald J A1 - Case, Doug A1 - Psaty, Bruce M A1 - Suzuki, Takeki A1 - Burke, Gregory L KW - Aged KW - Coronary Disease KW - Electrocardiography KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Incidence KW - Male KW - Predictive Value of Tests KW - Prognosis KW - Proportional Hazards Models KW - Prospective Studies KW - Risk Assessment KW - Risk Factors KW - Sex Factors KW - United States AB -

The Minnesota Code (MC) and Novacode (Nova) are the most widely used electrocardiographic (ECG) classification systems. The comparative strengths of their classifications for Q- and ST-T-wave abnormalities in predicting coronary heart disease (CHD) events and total mortality have not been evaluated separately by gender. We studied standard 12-lead electrocardiograms at rest from 4,988 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Average age at baseline was 73 years, 60% of participants were women 85% were white, and 22% had a history of cardiovascular disease or presence of ECG myocardial infarction by MC or Nova. Starting in 1989 with an average 17-year follow-up, 65% of participants died and 33% had incident CHD in a cohort free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Of these, electrocardiograms with major Q-wave or major ST-T abnormalities by MC or Nova predicted increased risk for CHD events and total mortality with no significant differences in predictability between men and women. The study also found that women had fewer major Q-wave changes but more major ST-T abnormalities than men. However, there were no gender differences in predicting CHD events and total mortality. In conclusion, ECG classification systems for myocardial infarction/ischemia abnormalities by MC or Nova are valuable and useful for men and women in clinical trials and epidemiologic studies.

VL - 107 IS - 6 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21247534?dopt=Abstract ER -