Electrocardiographic abnormalities in hospitalized elderly patients

Introduction: Aging causes an increase in cardiovascular morbidity that can be reflected in the electrocardiogram, but not all older adults' subpopulations have been systematically studied. Objectives: To determine the main electrocardiographic alterations that occur in elderly patients with cardiovascular morbidities. Method: Cross-sectional descriptive study in 148 patients >= 60 years, with cardiovascular morbidities, admitted to the Internal Medicine service of the "Hospital Celestino Hernandez Robau" in Villa Clara. Electrocardiographic variables suggestive of cardiac involvement were identified. Results: The average age was 77.4 +/- 8.2 years. Atrial fibrillation was seen in 16.9% of cases. There were alterations of ventricular repolarization in 39.3% of cases, as well as left/right bundle branch block in 14.4% and 5.4% respectively. A 24.7% of patients presented left atrial abnormality and 178% QT prolongation. The highest number of cases with electric left ventricular hypertrophy was detected with the R aVL criteria (9 patients [10.2%]). Conclusion: The most frequent rhythm disorder was atrial fibrillation. Alterations of ventricular repolarization prevailed over those of depolarization with no association with sex or skin color. There was a considerable number of cases with left atrial abnormality, left ventricular hypertrophy and long QT.