Electrocardiographic Diagnosis of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in the Presence of Right Bundle Branch Block in Cases with Essential Hypertension

Right bundle branch block was diagnosed in electrocardiograms of 37 of 1085 patients with essential hypertension. Echocardiographically left ventricu lar hypertrophy was diagnosed in 14 of these 37 patients. Eighteen electrocar diographic (ECG) criteria, which were previously recommended, were deter mined in these 37 patients. The sensitivities of five criteria were found to be better than 50%. These are SV 1 ≥ 2 mm; RV6 > RV5; S III + (R + S) maximum precordial lead ≥ 30 mm; P/PR ≥ 1.6; R a VL ≥ 11 mm. However, their specificities ranged from 56.5% to 95.6%. When the combination of RV6 > RV5 and S III + (R + S) maximum precordial lead ≥ 30 mm was used, sensitivity was 57.1 and specificity was 100%. It is concluded that the presence of right bundle branch block these ECG criteria can be used for the diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy.