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 .