[Criteria for electrocardiographic diagnosis of vagotonia. Is there a consensus in the opinion of specialists?].

PURPOSE: To identify the most important criteria for the ECG diagnosis of vagotonia in the opinion of cardiologists.

METHODS

A written questionnaire was applied to 40 cardiologists attending the 9th Brazilian Congress of Cardiac Arrhythmias (S. José do Rio Preto, SP, 1992). The sample represented approximately 15% of all participants and was intentionally biased to include 70% of the invited speakers and free communications presenters, and to exclude non-medical professionals, aiming to enhance the validity of the answers. It was divided in two parts: the first, with spontaneous response, answered without knowledge of the following; and the second, where a list of ECG criteria obtained in the literature was presented to the respondent in a random order. In both parts, the specialists were requested to attribute an order of importance for each criterion.

RESULTS

In the 1st part, 35 different criteria were cited, but only 3 were assigned by more than 25% of the sample: sinus bradycardia (95%), tall and peaked T waves (30%) and early repolarization (27.5%). In the 2nd part, the best classified criterion was sinus bradycardia, followed by J point elevation and ST segment elevation.

CONCLUSION

Among cardiologists with a interest in electrocardiography and cardiac arrhythmias, apart of sinus bradycardia, there is no clear consensus concerning to the group of criteria to identify vagotonia in the standard 12-lead ECG. Further research is necessary to objectively validate the main criteria herein identified.