[Echocardiographic examinations for mass-screening of cardiovascular abnormalities]

We evaluated the echocardiographic techniques for detecting left ventricular hypertrophy, mitral valve prolapse, and underlying abnormalities of nonspecific T wave changes on electrocardiograms during mass-screening medical examinations. The sensitivity and specificity of the electrocardiographic voltage criteria of Sokolow et al. for detecting left ventricular hypertrophy determined from the actual left ventricular wall thickness measured by echocardiograms in 759 young men, were only 61% and 54%, respectively. The diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy should be based on echocardiographic measurements even during mass-screening medical examinations. Mitral valve prolapse was detected in 25 (1.2%) of 2016 young healthy subjects. The mitral valve prolapse may not be a rare abnormality even in apparently normal subjects. Of 5217 consecutive subjects who underwent mass-screening medical examinations, 56 subjects had a mild T wave abnormality which was not explained by any of ischemic heart disease, hypertension, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and other systemic abnormalities. Careful echocardiographic examinations revealed regional or mild left ventricular hypertrophic lesions in 31 (55%) of these 56 subjects. We conclude that echocardiographic techniques are useful for detecting left ventricular hypertrophy and mitral valve prolapse and for elucidating the underlying abnormalities of nonspecific T wave changes during mass-screening medical examinations.