A comparison of Cornell and Sokolow-Lyon electrocardiographic criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy in a military male population in Taiwan: the Cardiorespiratory fitness and HospItalization Events in armed Forces study.

Background: The Cornell and Sokolow-Lyon electrocardiography (ECG) criteria have been widely used for diagnosing left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in patients with hypertension. However, the correlations of these ECG criteria with LVH were rarely compared in military members who received rigorous training, particularly of the Asian male population.

Methods: We compared the Cornell voltage and product criteria with the Sokolow-Lyon criteria for the echocardiographic LVH in 539 military male members, ages 18-50 years and free of hypertension in the Cardiorespiratory fitness and HospItalization Events in armed Forces (CHIEF) study in Taiwan. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to determine the association of each ECG criterion with the index of left ventricular mass (LVM, g)/height (m). The sensitivities and specificities were estimated using a receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve in relation to the echocardiographic LVH which was defined as LVM index ≥49 g/m.

Results: The correlations of the Cornell voltage and product criteria (r=0.24 and 0.26 respectively, both P<0.0001) were stronger than that of the Sokolow-Lyon criteria (r=0.049 and 0.095, and P=0.26 and 0.03 respectively) with the LVM index. Similarly the performances of the Cornell voltage and product criteria for the echocardiographic LVH [area under curve (AUC): 0.66 and 0.68, both P<0.0001] were superior to that of the Sokolow-Lyon criteria (AUC: 0.54 and 0.53, both P>0.1) in the area under the ROC curve analysis.

Conclusions: The Cornell ECG criteria for the echocardiographic LVH had better performance than the Sokolow-Lyon criteria in a young military male cohort in Taiwan.