(Hypertension. 1999;33:1159-1163.)
© 1999 American Heart Association, Inc.
Scientific Contributions |
Relation Between Body Fat–Corrected ECG Voltage and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Patients With Essential Hypertension
From the Second Department of Internal Medicine, Urafune Hospital of Yokohama City University (O.T., E.M., T.S.) and the Yokohama Seamen's Insurance Hospital (M.I.) (Japan).
Correspondence to Osamu Tochikubo, MD, Second Department of Internal Medicine, Urafune Hospital of Yokohama City University, 3-46 Urafune-cho, Minami-ku, Yokohama 232-0024, Japan.
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Abstract |
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Abstract—Because adipose tissue has high electric resistance, the amount of body fat influences ECG voltage. In this study, body fat weight of patients with essential hypertension was measured by means of the impedance method and was used to correct mean ECG voltage. Then the relation between body fat–corrected mean ECG voltage (Vfm) and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) was investigated. The subjects were 172 patients with essential hypertension (88 men, 84 women, none receiving medication) between the ages of 30 and 75 years. Ambulatory BP was measured by a multi-biomedical recorder. Minimum sleep-time BP (base BP) was calculated to correspond with minimum sleep-time heart rate. The tetrapolar bioelectric impedance method was used to measure body fat (kg). Left ventricular mass (LVM) was obtained by echocardiography. Then comparisons were made with standard 12-lead ECG, and the statistical mean ECG voltage (Vm) and Vfm were derived by multivariate statistical analysis. The following formula was devised to obtain Vfm resulting from the multivariate analysis that demonstrated a high correlation with LVM (r=0.85): Vfm=0.175(Body Fat)1/3xVm+0.5 (mV). The coefficient of correlation (r) between Vfm and ambulatory BP was not smaller than that between LVM and ambulatory BP. Base systolic BP demonstrated a significantly higher r value (r=0.83) with Vfm/BSA1/2 (where BSA is body surface area) than mean daytime SBP (r=0.65). In many subjects with white-coat hypertension, Vfm/BSA1/2 was <1.33 mV/m (34 of 38 cases; sensitivity, 89%; specificity, 89%). These results indicate that Vfm is a better indicator of hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy and that it may be useful in estimating minimum sleep-time systolic BP and in diagnosing white-coat hypertension in the outpatient clinic.
Key Words: hypertrophy, left ventricular • electrocardiography • sleep • blood pressure monitoring, ambulatory • hypertension, white-coat
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Introduction |
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Clinically, ECG detection of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) employs criteria of R-wave and S-wave amplitudes1 2 3 and QRS duration.4 ECG accuracy in detecting LVH, however, is inferior to that of the echocardiographic method.1 2 Many factors such as body weight (BW), lung tissue changes, and amount of subcutaneous fat influence the voltage of the ECG wave.5 6 Because fat is electrically resistant, when a thick layer of subcutaneous fat lies between the heart and the ECG electrodes, cardiac electric potential (voltage) attenuates before reaching the electrode. To compensate for this phenomenon, we measured body fat by means of the impedance method,7 8 and then we corrected the mean amplitude of the ECG voltage by means of body fat value to produce the optimum correlation with echocardiographic left ventricular mass (LVM) by multivariate analysis. Next, we investigated the correlation between body fat–corrected mean ECG voltage (Vfm) and ambulatory blood pressure (BP).
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Methods |
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Patients
The subjects were 192 patients (98 men and 94 women) not receiving medication and ranging in age from 30 to 75 years. BP, measured by the auscultatory method 3 times on 3 different days, was >140 mm Hg for systolic BP (SBP) and >90 mm Hg for diastolic BP (DBP; Korotkoff phase V). All subjects underwent a routine examination, and only those patients with essential hypertension were selected for the study. Because no definite relation between their ECG findings and echocardiographic LVM could be found, the following were eliminated from the study: 4 patients demonstrating right bundle branch block, 2 patients with left bundle branch block, 3 patients with renal complications accompanied by edema, 3 patients with old myocardial infarction, and 1 patient with pulmonary emphysema. Seven other patients with poor echocardiographic recordings were also eliminated. The final experimental group consisted of 172 subjects (88 men and 84 women; mean±SD age, 56±12 years). Patients with cardiac valvular disease, pericardial effusion, anemia, or cardiomyopathy were not included.
Subjects were subdivided into 3 groups (Table 1). The following 16 patients were
included in the severe hypertension group with target organ damage: 7
patients with hypertensive retinopathy (Keith-Wagner
category 3), 4 patients with hypertensive congestive heart failure, and
5 patients with renal failure (serum creatinine
concentration 177 to 354 µmol/L). Eleven patients in this group
had abdominal (visceral fat) obesity. The 38 subjects whose mean
24-hour BP was <133/82 mm Hg were included in the white-coat
hypertension group. Numerous other reports9 10 as well as
the 95th percentile of mean 24-hour BP for normotensive subjects
(n=180; age range, 30 to 75 years) at our facility have established
133/82 mm Hg as the criterion for white-coat hypertension. The
remainder of patients (n=118) with World Health Organization stage I
and II hypertension were classified in the sustained hypertension group
(Table 1). The examinations were performed before any
antihypertensive medication was administered. The study was approved by
the ethical committee of our institute, and all subjects gave written
informed consent.
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Ambulatory BP Methodology
The multi-biomedical recorder11 (TM2425,
A&D Co) we used simultaneously records indirect
BP by the cuff method, heart rate (heart rate=60/R-R) from ECG R-R
interval, body motion (acceleration), ambient temperature, and body
position (sitting or standing). In this study, the BP of all subjects
was measured for 24 hours at 30-minute intervals. The nighttime
(sleep-time) data derive from the subjects' diaries. All remaining
time was counted as waking time or daytime. Because such factors as
depth of sleep and rapid eye movement sleep influence BP, it is
impossible to be certain that nighttime BP readings represent
true sleep-time BP.12 Therefore, we took the minimum
sleep-time BP (base BP12 ) as a
representative sleep-time BP. Base BP was obtained
statistically13 to correspond to minimum sleep-time heart
rate value with the use of the multi-biomedical
recorder.
ECG Methodology
A programmable ECG analyzer (Cardio Base FCP-4731,
Fukuda Denshi Co, Ltd) was used to obtain standard 12-lead ECG. A
10-second segment of simultaneous ECG lead
recordings was sampled at a rate of 1000 samples per second per
lead. We measured mean R- and S-wave amplitudes (mV) with a 10-second
mean ECG waveform.
According to the method described below, 12-lead R- and S-wave
representative values were taken as statistical mean
ECG voltage (Vm). Because unipolar leads have
lower standardization than bipolar leads, we first obtained
RE (length of Einthoven arrow) to represent R- and
S-wave amplitudes for the 6 limb leads. Then we obtained the electric
axis, the angle of which was termed 
. Because this value tends
to decrease (left axis deviation) as LVH increases,2 we
devised the following formula to correct RE for
(REC):
 | (1) |
is >60°, cos
||602-2||1/2
is set at 1. When is <0°, this value is set at 0.5. Equation 1
was determined for the following reasons. The Einthoven vector
(RE) is a frontal-plane vector. When the size of a
hypothetical 3-dimensional vector of LVM action potential is taken as
REC, it can be inferred to be part of the following
relation: RE=RECxcos 
, where is the
angle between hypothetical LVM vector and Einthoven vector. If a
comparison between REC and LVM is assumed
(REC=AxLVM, where A is the proportional constant), cos
=RE/(AxLVM) is <1 (RE
AxLVM). Therefore,
from these conditions, inferring the value of A from the distribution
of RE (mV) and LVM (g) gives 10-2
mV/g. The value for is obtained from the following formula:
=cos-1
(RE/LVMx10-2). We next investigated
the relation between and (Figure 1). In cases of 
60°, is in the
vicinity of 0. In cases of 0, is in the vicinity of 60°. In
cases of 0°<<60°, and are distributed in the vicinity
of the relationship
2+2=602.
Equation 1 was derived from this relation.
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Precordial lead ECG voltages related to LVH are
SV1, SV2,
SV3, RV5, and
RV6. As a result of principal components
analysis, SV3 and
RV5 were selected as
representative precordial lead voltages strongly
related to LVM. The following model formula was used as a
representative mean electric potential
(Vm) of the 12 leads:
 | (2) |
1.4
(RV5+2.2REC+3.0SV3+34),
multiple correlation coefficient=0.76].
Echocardiographic Methodology
Standard M-mode 2-dimensional echocardiograms were
recorded with a cardiac ultrasound machine (SONOS2500, Hewlett
Packard Inc) by a cardiologist. Left ventricular dimensions
were measured from 2-dimensionally guided M-mode tracings according to
the recommendations of the American Society of
Echocardiography.14 LVM was calculated
from Penn conversion15 by the following formula:
LVM=1.04[(LVID+PWT+IVS)3-(LVID)3]-13.6
(g), where LVID is left ventricular internal
dimension, PWT is posterior wall thickness, and IVS is
interventricular septal thickness. The following formula
was used to estimate body surface area (BSA) from BW (kg) and height
(H) (cm):
BSA=0.007184xBW0.425xH0.725.
Comparison Between Mean ECG Voltage and Echocardiographic
LVM
The sum of the myocardial electric potentials influences ECG
voltage. However, considering it possible that the greater the amount
of body fat, the greater the attenuation of voltage at ECG electrodes,
we devised the following model expression:
 | (3) |
) values.
In the past, numerous reports1 2 3 4 5 6 have dealt with
comparisons between ECG LVH criteria and
echocardiographic LVM. Voltage criteria include
Sokolow-Lyon voltage3
(SV1+RV5 through
RV6), Cornell voltage1
(RaVL+SV3), and Robert's total QRS
voltage.16 The Cardiovascular Health Study
(CHS) model6 takes BW into consideration [men:
2.5x(RaVL+SV3)+21.45x(
BW-2.7); women:
2.4x(RaVL+SV3)+17.20x(BW-2.1)]. These
criteria also examined the correlation coefficients with
echocardiographic LVM in this study.
Statistical Analysis
Standard statistical methods, including unpaired t
test and ANOVA, were used. A program from the Social Survey Research
Information Co, Ltd was used to perform multiple linear regression
analysis, discriminant analysis, and multiple principal
components analysis. The cutoff value between groups was
determined by discriminant analysis to discriminate well
between the groups, and sensitivity and specificity were calculated.
Nonlinear data such as 
(Body
Fat)ßxVm+
were
converted into natural logarithms and analyzed. Data are
expressed as mean±SD. Coefficients of correlation (r) were
compared statistically with 2-tailed Fisher z
transformation. A level of P<0.05 was considered
statistically significant.
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Results |
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Fat-Corrected ECG Voltage
Use of the model equation
(Body
Fat)ßxVm+ to arrive
at regression coefficients (=0.175, ß=0.27, =0.48) among
echocardiographic LVM (g), body fat (kg), and
Vm (mV) by means of multiple regression
analysis led to the following relationship expression
(correlation for both was r=0.846):
LVM100xVfm,
Vfm=0.175(Body
Fat)1/3xVm+0.5 (mV). The
relation between echocardiographic LVM and
Vfm is shown in Figure 2. Table 2
shows correlation coefficients between
echocardiographic LVM and Sokolow-Lyon voltage, Cornell
voltage, Robert's 12-lead QRS sum voltage, CHS model, and
Vfm in the subjects investigated in this study.
The highest coefficient of correlation was between
Vfm and LVM in both total and World Health
Organization I and II groups.
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and women 
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Relationship Between Vfm and Ambulatory BP
Table 3 shows coefficients of
correlation (r) for mean 24-hour BP, daytime BP, nighttime
BP, minimum sleep-time BP (base BP), and LVM and
Vfm.
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The Vfm demonstrated higher or approximately the same r values with ambulatory BP values as those demonstrated by echocardiographic LVM. SBP demonstrated a higher coefficient of correlation with Vfm than DBP, and the highest correlation coefficient among the BP values was between base SBP and Vfm (r=0.821). When LVM and Vfm were corrected for BSA, Vfm/BSA1/2 demonstrated a high coefficient of correlation with ambulatory SBP value and a significantly higher coefficient (r=0.834) with base SBP than with mean daytime SBP (r=0.646, P<0.01) (Table 3, Figure 3).
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,
severe hypertension. The cutoff point (1.91 mV) was also determined
between severe HT and other groups (DsIn many cases of white-coat hypertension, Vfm/BSA1/2 was <1.33 mV/m (34 of 38 cases; sensitivity, 89%; specificity, 89%) (Figure 3). Vfm/BSA1/2 was >1.91 mV/m in many cases of severe hypertension (13 of 16 cases; sensitivity, 81%; specificity, 97%) (Figure 3) (cutoff values of 1.33 and 1.91 mV/m were determined by discriminant analysis to discriminate well between the groups).
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Discussion |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Detection of LVH is of the greatest importance in estimating hypertension severity and predicting the prognosis in patients with hypertension.17 18 19 In the clinic, LVH is detected on the basis of echocardiograms. Despite the advantages of echocardiography, cost and operational considerations and its reproducibility tend to limit its utility. In addition, compared with the results of MRI,20 echocardiographic LVM tends to overestimate LVM detected by MRI method. On the other hand, ECG is a more practical method and its measurements are highly reproducible, but its evaluation of LVH is not accurate.5 21 As is well known, R- and S-wave voltages are decreased in cases of emphysema and obesity.5 6 Although electric resistance between the heart and the electrodes is influenced by various factors, owing to the high electric resistance of adipose tissue, body fat makes correction necessary. With this in mind, we developed a model expression for inferring the total myocardial action potential:
(Body
Fat)ßxVm+, in which
(Body Fat)ß is taken as the electric
resistance factor. However, Vfm cannot be
measured in cases of right and left bundle branch block. Moreover, this
method has limitations: in cases of old myocardial infarction or
complications associated with pulmonary emphysema and edema,
Vfm tends to produce values smaller than those of
echocardiographic LVM. Echocardiographic LVM and ECG voltage reflect different pathological features. Not only hypertrophy of cardiac muscle cells but also increases in such interstitial substances as fibroblasts and collagen play a part in increases of LVM. Therefore, LVM as demonstrated by echocardiography and MRI provides a good opportunity to examine not only cardiac muscle cells but total interstitial substances as well. However, with such methods, the sum total of pure cardiac muscle cells cannot always be determined. Because R- and S-wave voltages observed on ECG are related to cardiac muscle cell potential, ECG may possibly be superior for revealing cardiac muscle hypertrophy caused by high- pressure loads.
The second problem was determining whether the formula used in this study is appropriate for inferring Vm. Numerous inference formulas are available for ECG voltage: methods entail calculating the means of all R and S waves from total 12-lead QRS amplitude,16 SV1+RV5,3 RaVL+SV3,1 CHS model,6 maximal spatial vector of vector cardiography,21 and the Novacode program22 based on statistical multivariate models for estimation of echocardiographic LVM. The formula proposed in this study was used to improve and simplify these methods. Because differences in race, gender, and age may occur, however, the formula should be used with larger numbers of subjects to improve its applicability.
The method used to estimate amount of body fat entails another problem. Because it is an experimental estimation,7 8 it cannot be used in cases of edema or in conditions accompanied by pericardial effusion. In this study, however, with the use of an impedance meter jointly employing electrodes attached to both arms, measurement of body fat was possible. In addition, our method proved practical because it can automatically calculate both Vm and Vfm by means of a computer and impedance meter built into the ECG equipment.
Another goal of this study was to determine whether Vfm is more strongly related to base BP or to daytime BP. We found that Vfm had a higher correlation with SBP than with DBP. In addition, correlation with base SBP was significantly higher than correlation with daytime SBP (Table 3). Because LVM is influenced by BSA, the formula Vfm/BSA1/2 produces the highest coefficient of correlation with base SBP (Figure 3). In other words, it is possible that the sum of myocardial action potential is intimately related to base SBP. Base BP, which manifests itself during deep sleep when metabolic activities are at a minimum, is little influenced by environmental factors and can be thought to express the true basal BP advocated by Smirk et al.23 Base BP is more reproducible than either daytime or nighttime BP and has a high coefficient of correlation with hypertension target-organ damage.13 Vfm demonstrated a strong correlation with base SBP. These findings suggest that Vfm may be an indicator of cardiac muscle hypertrophy induced by increased afterload.
From the opposite standpoint, Vfm is useful in estimating base SBP and therefore may by helpful in discriminating between sustained hypertension and white-coat hypertension or severe hypertension in the outpatient clinic.
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Acknowledgments |
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The authors wish to thank Fukuda Denshi Co, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, for providing the computer program used for Vm and Vfm calculations in the ECG equipment (Fukuda Denshi Cardio Base FCP-4731).
Received August 17, 1998; first decision September 22, 1998; accepted January 11, 1999.
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