Electrocardiographic appearance of aortic stenosis before and after aortic valve replacement.

BACKGROUND: So far, the specific appearance of QRS complex, ST-segment, and T wave was observed in aortic stenosis (AS). S-wave dynamic change in leads V1 -V3 was not reported in AS.

METHODS: In a single-center, prospective study, we included a total number of 1.175 patients who underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). We conducted 3-year gathering of patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic severe AS, and separated them by hemodynamic stability into groups A and B, through EFLV (of more or less than 50%), AVA (of more or less than 0.9 cm2 ), PG (between 55 and 75 mm Hg or over 75 mm Hg), and end-diastolic LV dimension (of more or less than 56 mm). We evaluated the impact of S-wave magnitude in right precordial leads before and after AVR in all patients. We followed S-wave changes in electrocardiogram altogether with hemodynamic measurements derived from echocardiography.

RESULTS: Analysis of echocardiographic parameters, measured in patients before surgery, did not show statistical significance between asymptomatic and symptomatic group. The statistical significance was observed in the change in S-wave magnitude in the right precordial leads in both subsets of patients before AVR. We found statistically significant predictive value of S-wave magnitude in leads V2 -V3 for dependent variables PG and end-diastolic LV dimension.

CONCLUSIONS: S-wave changes in right precordial leads can predict increase in PG and critical narrowing of AVA, suggestive of timely referral for AVR.