Early repolarization is independently associated with African-American race, younger age, higher BMI and lower heart rate.

Early repolarization (ER) is commonly seen in young adults. The goal of this study was to evaluate predictors of ER. The authors used ECGs, available from 636 subjects, performed on healthy students for screening purposes. The prevalence of ER was 13.5%. The prevalence of ER was higher in African-American subjects (48.0% vs 10.8%; odds ratio: 5.9; CI: 3.5-9.7; p < 0.0001), those with a BMI >25 (18.6% vs 11.7%; p = 0.02), those age <30 (16.4% vs 2.0%; p < 0.0001), male subjects (17.1% vs 8.3%; p = 0.001) and those with heart rate <70 (18.2% vs 9.2%; p = 0.001). With multivariate analysis, except gender, all other parameters remained significantly correlating with ER. The authors found younger age, African-American race, higher BMI and lower heart rate to be predictors of ER.