The prognostic significance of Q waves and T wave inversions in the ECG of patients with STEMI: A substudy of the TOTAL trial

The prognostic significance of Q waves and T-wave inversions (TWI) combined and separately in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI has not been well established in previous studies. We included 7,831 patients from the TOTAL trial and divided the patients into categories based on Q waves and TWIs in the presenting ECG. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), cardiogenic shock or new or worsening NYHA class IV heart failure within one year. The study evaluated the effect of Q waves and TWI on the risk of primary outcome and all-cause death, and whether patient benefit of aspiration thrombectomy differed between the ECG categories. Patients with Q+TWI+ (Q wave and TWI) pattern had higher risk of primary outcome compared to patients with Q-TWI- pattern [33 (10.5%) vs. 221 (4.2%); adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 2.10; 95% CI, 1.45-3.04; p