Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in systemic hypertension in patients attending Kenyatta national hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

A prospective study of electrocardiograms (ECG's) in 102 hypertensive African patients was carried out at the Kenyatta , National Hospital. Mean age for these patients was 45.2 year so All the patients were in normal sinus rhythm. Forty seven percent of the patients , had bradycardia, although this could be attributed to the drugs the patients were taking. The P wave duration' increased with the severity of hypertension. Twenty five percent of the patients had evidence of first degree A-V block. This was expected as most of the patients were taking B-adrenergic receptor blocking durgs for their hypertension. Two patients had LBBB and none had RBBB. There were 13 patient~. with evidence of left axis deviation (LAD) and the incidence ihcreased with the severity of hypertension. S-T, T changes were noted in 12.8% and 29% of patients respectively. Q-Tc duration did not increase with severity of hypertension. U w,ave incidence was 35.3% in this study. Left Ventricular hypertrophy was noted in 27.5% of the patients using the criteria devised by Romhilt et al (34)0