Q waves and coronary artery disease

In a consecutive series of 234 patients admitted for selective coronary arteriography, 78 had pathological Q waves. In 32 of these 78 patients, ECG showed left ventricular hypertrophy, QRS duration of greater than or equal to 0.12 sec, incomplete left bundle branch block, or left axis deviation. Fourteen (44%) of these 32 patients had coronary artery disease (CAD), while 40 (87%) of the remaining 46 patients without these ECG changes had CAD (p less than 0.0005). Among the 46 patients, 34 of 35 with angina pectoris had CAD compared to 6 of 11 without angina pectoris (p less than 0.01). Our study thus shows that Q waves may be reliable predictors of CAD especially in patients with angina pectoris.