The clinical significance of P waves with delayed ascent

Abstract 1. 1. P waves with delayed ascent were encountered with an incidence of 7.7 per cent among 1,000 nonselected records. 2. 2. The ascending limb occupied 74 per cent (instead of the normal 49.4 per cent), and the angle alpha, which measures the degree of elevation of the ascending limb, amounted to 32 degrees (instead of the normal 44 degrees). Both values express the remarkable asymmetry of the P wave with delayed ascent. 3. 3. P waves with delayed ascent are definitely abnormal waves. They were found to be associated with coronary artery disease in 89.6 per cent of the cases, and with heart failure in 7.8 per cent of the cases.