Evaluating Goldberger's triad as a marker of congestive heart failure: A systematic review and retrospective study

In 1982, Drs. Barold and Goldberger described an ECG triad associated with left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) consisting of high precordial QRS voltage, low limb lead voltage, and poor precordial R wave progression. Studies have since attempted to replicate the originally reported sensitivity (70%), specificity (>99%), and positive predictive value (PPV, 100%) of Goldberger's triad (GT) with variable results.

To assess sensitivity, specificity and PPV of GT as a screening tool for LVD in the current era.

We performed: (1) A systematic review of the published studies; (2) Searched our hospital ECG database (GE MUSE) for diagnoses of "low limb-voltage" and "left ventricular hypertrophy" from 2017 to 2022; identified ECGs were analyzed for GT criteria and their medical records were screened for LVD. (3) ECG analysis of patients with known idiopathic LVD for the GT.

A total of 11,115 patients from 8 studies were included in the systematic review of published studies and showed widely varying sensitivity, specificity and PPV. A total of 4576 ECGs (in GE MUSE) from 372 patients met initial screening criteria of low limb lead voltage and LVH; only 12 patients had ECGs that satisfied GT. Of these 12, only 1 patient had evidence of LVD, yielding a PPV of 8%. Finally, of the 40 patients with known LVD, only 1 met the ECG criteria for GT, resulting in a sensitivity of 2.5%.

Our literature review does not support the original results of GT. ECGs from our database that met GT (searched by low limb-voltage and left ventricular hypertrophy) over a span of 5 years were rare. When present, the PPV of GT was 8%. In patients with established LVD, the sensitivity was 2.5%. These data do not validate GT as tool to identify LVD in the current era.