A 5-year follow-up of young men with primary T wave aberrations in their electrocardiograms

Forty-eight subjects (group T) with primary T wave aberrations in their electrocardiograms (e.g. notches, flattening or inversion in leads II, CR4 and CR7 but without a concomitant ST depression) and 38 controls (group C), examined previously at the age of 18-19 years, were re-examined after 5.4 and 7.5 years respectively. The incidence of heart disease between the two examinations was lower in group T than in the controls. The T wave aberration had decreased in severity in 22 subjects in group T, but 66% of them still showed T wave aberrations at rest. Only one subject was free from T wave aberrations during orthostasis. Beta-adrenergic blockade in 27 subjects in group T suggested that 3 possibly had organic genesis to the aberrations. The earlier reported signs of high sympathetic tone in group T had decreased, but a somewhat higher heart rate and diastolic blood pressure than in the controls still remained. The systolic time intervals suggested larger stroke volumes in group T than in the controls and did not indicate decreased myocardial performance in group T. The attenuated differences between groups T and C in T wave abnormality, heart rate and blood pressure over the follow-up period suggest that T wave abnormality as an isolated finding in young men is a benign finding.