Features of 12-Lead ECG Are the Predictor of Sudden Death in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Patients

Background: Sudden death is often seen in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients. Some risk factors for sudden death in adult HCM patients are known, but these factors individually have a low positive accuracy. Recently, a scoring system based only on 12-lead ECG features to assess the risk of sudden death in HCM patients was proposed by Ostman-Smith I et al. (Eur Heart J 2010). Objectives: To verify whether the scoring system is proper or not in Japanese adult HCM patients. Methods and Results: Consecutive 22 HCM patients who underwent coronary angiography at our hospital in 2008–2010 were enrolled. We checked the ECGs and case histories of the patients. It was found that three of the 22 patients had histories of cardiac arrest. According to the report by Ostman-Smith I et al., the separation of HCM patients who suffered from cardiac arrest from HCM-cohort is obtained by risk score ≥6 (sensitivity 84%, specificity 85%). In our study, the scores of all three patients were ≥6, whereas the average risk score in the other 19 patients was 4.11. The risk score ≥6 has high sensitivity (100%) and high specificity (79%). Conclusion: It is suggested that features of 12-lead ECG are powerful predictor of sudden death in Japanese HCM patients.