Objective: To study the predictive value of 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormality on prognosis of chronic heart failure in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM-CHF).
Methods: A prospective, multicenter follow-up study in 787 DCM-CHF patients was conducted, and the endpoints were obtained by clinical visit, mail contact and telephone conversation. The independent predictors for all cause death were determined by Cox regression analysis, QRS duration > 120 ms was studied and the survival rates were investigated by Kaplan-Meier analysis.
Results: There were 203 patients died during the follow-up period. Cox regression analysis found that the following indexes were related to all cause death: atrial fibrillation (AF) (HR=2.064, 95% CI 1.102-3.864,P<0.05), non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) (HR=3.887, 95% CI 1.554-9.724,P<0.05) and QRS duration (HR=1.010, 95% CI 1.002-1.018, P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the survival rates were different by each stratiifcation of QRS duration,P<0.05.
Conclusion: ECG indexes of AF, NSVT and QRS duration had the important impact on the survival rate in DCM-CHF patients; there were signiifcant differences between QRS durations and survival rates.