PREVALENCES AND CORRELATES OF ECG ABNORMALITIES IN THE ADULT BELGIAN POPULATION

Data from 5,817 men and 5,215 women (age range, 25-74 years) who parti cipated in the Belgian Interuniversity Research on Nutrition and Healt h were used to determine prevalences and associated variables of diffe rent abnormalities on the resting electrocardiogram. Electrocardiograp hic abnormalities were coded according to the Minnesota classification system. About one third of the subjects showed one or more abnormalit ies on their electrocardiographic abnormalities Major abnormalities oc curred in 7.3% of the men and in 4.6% of the women. The prevalence of minor abnormalities was twice as high. Minnesota codes 4 (ST abnormali ties) and 5 (T wave changes) were found to be the most prevalent in bo th sexes (9.6 and 10.5% respectively in women and 8.4 and 9.1% respect ively in men), while code 2 (QRS axis deviation, 7.9%) and code 7 (ven tricular conduction defect, 8.7%) were quite common in men. Most preva lences were rather log-linearly related with age, except codes 6 (atri oventricular conduction defect) and 9 (miscellaneous items). In the as ymptomatic subjects, blood pressure showed the strongest positive corr elation with minor ST-T abnormalities in both men and women independen t of other factors. Other correlates identified by multivariate analys es were serum potassium, serum phosphor, and serum uric acid levels, a s well as the intake of diuretics. However, any major, minor, and ST-T abnormalities were, according to sex, differently related to those co rrelates.