Classification of patients with and without syncope by means of QT analysis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: preliminary results

In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a history of syncope is associated with increased risk of sudden death, an important role in its pathophysiology being presumably played by an arrhythmic mechanism. The aim of this study was to find out whether several ventricular repolarization parameters are useful to discriminate between patients with and without syncope. The Holter recordings of three groups of subjects (HCM with syncope, HCM without syncope and normals) were analysed, and three sets of variables were measured: six spectral variables, six QT/RR slope variables and 12 QT time parameters. All three sets were submitted to tests (e.g. discriminant analysis) in order to verify the differences among the groups. Finally, classification of single subjects was carried out.