High frequency electrocardiogram in detection of previous myocardial infarction: a noninvasive test complementary to routine electrocardiogram

Presents the clinical utility of the high frequency electrocardiogram (HF-ECG) for detection of ischemic myocardial lesions. 35 patients with clinically documented myocardial infarction (MI-pts) underwent coronarography. The degree and the number of atheromatic involved coronary arteries were evaluated accordingly to commonly accepted criteria. Control groups consisted of 30 healthy subjects. In each subject HF-ECG was performed for a 150-250 Hz frequency range envelope of the HF-ECG signal. The following measurements were performed: maximum amplitude (Amax), RMS and area under the envelope curve (AR). Routine ECGs clearly showed previous MI in 29 MI-pts (83%), whereas abnormal HF-ECG was observed in 34 MI-pts (97%). All MI-pts showed significantly reduced Amax, RMS and AR, as compared to controls.