Resting- and postexercise-ECG findings in an adult Lapp population

Resting electrocardiograms were recorded in 412 and postexercise-ECGs in 186 Lapp men and women over the age of 40. Abnormalities in the resting-ECG suggestive of old myocardial infarction by the Minnesota code were found in 7% of the men and in 1% of the women. ST-depression compatible with myocardial ischaemia in the resting-ECG were found in 3% of men aged 40-49 years and in 5% of women of the same age; and increased with age up to 11% and 24% in men and women, respectively, over the age of 60. Postexercise ST-depressions of "ischemic type" were found in 18% of the men and in 13% of the women, but there was no clear age dependence. The frequency of high amplitude R-waves of the left type was high compared with most normal populations, especially in men (29%). These prevalences were very similar to those previously reported in a Finnish population.