[Epidemiologic profile of transtelephonic electrocardiography in El Salvador during 1994].

Unlabelled: A total of 3,787 electrocardiograms were obtained with transtelephonic monitors (TT-ECG) during 1994 in CardioTel of Central America, Nueva San Salvador, El Salvador. Each case was evaluated in terms of patient's risk and classified as high or low risk on basis of its clinical profile. There were 3,441 traces of low risk patients and 346 of high risk one. Female patients accounts for 64.7% of cases, with 35.3% corresponding to males. Of all the TT-ECG's a 52.3% were normal. Subjects older than 60 years (independently of risk had a greater probability of an abnormal TT-ECG; in the same way there was an statistically significative increase in the incidence of abnormal TT-ECG in high risk subjects compared with low risk ones. In respect to specific TT-ECG abnormalities against cardiovascular risk, a high risk condition implied a greater incidence of bundle branch blocks, signs of myocardial lesion/necrosis, left ventricular hypertrophy, sinus tachycardia and bradycardia, atrial fibrillation and premature ventricular and supraventricular complexes, with a p value of 0.05 of 0.001.

Conclusions: TT-ECG is useful in the search of cardiovascular disease, regardless the presence or absence of symptoms. Age greater than 60 years and high cardiovascular risk implies a greater probability of abnormal TT-ECG.