COMPARISON OF ELECTROCARDIOGRAMS RECORDED WITH STANDARD LEADS AND DERIVED FROM THE VECTORCARDIOGRAPHIC FRANK LEADS IN HIGH-RISK PATIENTS

Dynamic vectorcardiography (VCG) is increasingly employed for ischaemi a monitoring with the use of a computerized method for recording and o n-line analysis by the calculation of trend parameters. To elucidate h ow well the derived electrocardiogram (dECG), calculated from the VCC, compares with the simultaneously registered standard ECG (sECG), dECG s from 17 postoperative cardiac-risk patients and 36 subjects with acu te myocardial infarction (AMI) were compared to sECGs, both quantitati vely in leads II, III, V2 and V5 and qualitatively. Despite small, but some significant differences, mainly in the amplitudes of precordial leads, the qualitative interpretation by two independent cardiologists showed good agreement between the methods (kappa = 0.72 and 0.67, res pectively) for the diagnosis of AMI/ischaemia. The dECG seems to be re liable and can be used clinically in these groups of patients during V CG recordings.