Outcomes in Patients With Prolonged PR Interval or First-Degree Atrioventricular Block
- Jaewon Oh, MD;
- Ho Youn Won, MD;
- Seok-Min Kang, MD, PhD smkang@yuhs.acYonsei University College of MedicineSeoul, South Korea
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- ATRIAL FIBRILLATION
- ATRIOVENTRICULAR BLOCK
- ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY
- ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY, AMBULATORY
- HYPERTROPHY, LEFT VENTRICULAR
- MORTALITY
- OUTCOME ASSESSMENT (HEALTH CARE)
- PACEMAKER, ARTIFICIAL
To the Editor: In their cohort study using patients from the Framingham Heart Study, Dr Cheng and colleagues1 found that prolongation of the PR interval or first-degree atrioventricular (AV) block was associated with increased risks of atrial fibrillation (AF), pacemaker implantation, and all-cause mortality. In their AF analysis, they adjusted for electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) as a confounder, consistent with an article from the LIFE study that showed the relationship between LVH and AF.2 However, a subsequent article3 from the LIFE study reported that regression of LVH was associated with reduction of sudden cardiac death, and LVH has been reported to be a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality.4
Therefore, LVH may play a role as a confounder in mortality analysis, but the investigators did not adjust for LVH in that analysis. Such an adjustment might provide a more accurate estimation of the mortality hazard ratio. …
