Editorial to Association of QT dispersion with mortality and arrhythmic events—A meta‐analysis of observational studies

摘要

The majority of sudden cardiac death (SCD) cases are associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). Furthermore, SCD can be the first and devastating manifestation of CAD. Although, in the advances of medicine survival rate after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest is still low, even in the developed countries. Identification of patients with increased risk for SCD is quite important. Surface electrocardiography (ECG) has been used to predict SCD, including 24‐hour Holter monitoring for identifying the arrhythmia burden and signal‐averaged ECG for identifying abnormalities of QRS duration and configuration. However, these techniques are not sensitive and specific. Also, these cannot be used routinely in clinical practice. Thus, some electrocardiographic markers have been put forward to identify patients who are at risk for SCD. QT dispersion (QTd) is one of the noninvasive electrocardiographic markers for assessing susceptibility in CAD patients with arrhythmic risk and other clinical conditions.