[Ventricular arrhythmia in young university students without evidence of heart disease]

Ambulatory electrocardiography was performed for 24 hours in 30 University students (12 males and 18 females) without over heart disease, with normal cardiac physical examination, EKG and echocardiogram. Their age ranged from 18 to 33 years, with a mean of 23.9 years (SD 2.8). All of them were asymptomatic. Ventricular arrhythmias were detected in 13 of the subjects (43.4%); 12 had ventricular ectopy (VE) and one parasystole. Only one VE was detected in 24 hours in 8 cases; multiform VE occurred in only one and showed a repetitive form. In 58% of the cases it originated in the left ventricle. There was a positive relationship between cardiac frequency (CF) and VE: when the arrhythmia was registered, CF was 107.2 beats/min (SD = 23.9) and the average at the same hour was 89.7 beats/min (SD = 15.9; p less than 0.001). No significant association of the presence or absence of VE with sex, age, ingestion of alcohol or coffee was noted, except for cigarette smoking (p less than 0.04).