Wide QRS-T angles are associated with markers of increased inflammatory activity independently of hypertension and diabetes.

BACKGROUND Wide QRS-T angles and inflammatory activity are markers of future cardiovascular events including sudden cardiac death (SCD). The association between wide QRS-T angles and inflammatory activation is however not fully understood. METHODS 1,094 study participants of both sexes, 50-64 years old, were included from a randomly selected population-based cohort as a part of the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) pilot study. Serum samples were analyzed for markers of inflammation, cardiac wall stress/injury, and the metabolic syndrome. Wide QRS-T angles were defined using Frank vectorcardiography. Variables were analyzed through unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) as well as Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (OPLS) modeling. In addition, a subset of study participants was analyzed in a post hoc matched group design. RESULTS Wide QRS-T angles correlated positively with markers of inflammation, cardiac wall stress/injury, the metabolic syndrome, and male sex in both PCA and OPLS models. In the matched post hoc analysis, participants with wide QRS-T angles had significantly higher counts of white blood cells (WBC) and neutrophils in comparison with matched controls. WBC as well as the number of neutrophils, monocytes, basophils, eosinophils and levels of C-reactive protein, IL-1, IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α, and NT-pro-BNP were also significantly higher in comparison with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Markers of inflammatory activation and cardiac injury/wall stress were significantly higher in the presence of wide QRS-T angles. These results corroborate an association between abnormal electrophysiological function and inflammatory activation and may have implications for the prediction of SCD.