Prognostic significance of fragmented QRS in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction: Results of a 1-year, single-center follow-up
Herz, 05/30/2012

Guo R et al. – These results indicate that the occurrence of fragmented QRS (fQRS) in the ECG is a powerful predictor of decreased survival in NSTEMI. The prognostic importance of fQRS was incremental to clinical and conventional factors.

• The fQRS on standard 12–lead ECGs in 179 patients (63% males, mean age 60.9±12.3 years) were analyzed.
• Cardiac events and cardiac mortality were regarded as two outcomes to determine whether fQRS was a clinical prognostic factor; its prognostic value was then assessed adjusting for other covariates.

• Cardiac mortality (18 (17.0%) vs. 4 (5.5%)) and major cardiac event rate (46 (43.4%) vs. 22 (30.1%)) were higher in the fQRS group compared with the non–fQRS group during a mean follow–up of 12 months.
• A Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed significantly lower event–free survival for cardiac events (p=0.030) and cardiac mortality (p=0.020).
• Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that significant fQRS was an independent significant predictor for cardiac events and cardiac mortality.