[Electrocardiographic symptom-signal correspondence in Holter records].

STUDY

OBJECTIVE

To determine the correspondence symptom-sign in 24-hours ambulatory electrocardiography records.

DESIGN

Retrospective study.

SETTING

Pulido Valente Hospital (Lisbon). Serviço de Cardiologia. Department of Ambulatory Electrocardiography.

PATIENTS: 80 patients, who made 24-hours ambulatory electrocardiography and wrote correctly the diary. Two observators analysed the correspondence symptom-sign of 269 symptomatic moments, 10 minutes before and after the symptom by reviewing the compressed print.

RESULTS

We found correspondence symptom-sign in 50% of the symptomatic moments. The correspondence change with the symptom type (increased for palpitations and dyspnea), the presence of Cardiopathy (increased for chest pain and dyspnea in patients with cardiopathy) type of cardiopathy (increased in patients with Mitral Valve Prolapse and Valvular disease) and expression used by the patient.