Predicting the presence of LV-LGE
Patients with LV-LGE were older than patients without LV-LGE (48.0 ±
15.0 years vs. 37.7±17.5 years; P=0.019). The area under the receiver
operating characteristic curve, generated to assess the capability of
age to discriminate patients with and without LV-LGE (cut off 37.7 years
old), was 0.677. In patients older than 37 years had a 3.66-fold higher
risk of LV-LGE than patients younger than 37 years. Patients with BMI
>21.6 kg/m2 had a 10.70-fold higher risk
of having LV-LGE than patients with BMI ≤ 21.6kg/m2.
Moreover, patients with LV-LGE were more likely to have a history of
hypertension and drinking alcohol, and to have VA polymorphisms and
ST-segment depression. In the multivariable analyses adjusted for other
clinical variables, only the presence of ST-segment depression [hazard
ratio (HR) 8.83, 95% CI 2.23-35.50, P=0.002], drinking alcohol (HR
6.84, 95% CI 1.63-28.56, P=0.008), and VA polymorphisms (HR 25.24, 95%
CI 3.88-164.06, P=0.001) were independent predictors of LV-LGE. The
results of the univariable and multivariable logistic regression
analyses regarding 24-hour ambulatory Holter ECG predictors of LV-LGE
are summarized and presented in Table 4 .