Background: No reliable precursor of sudden cardiac death is known.
Methods and results: Holter electrocardiograms of 34 patients experiencing a cardiac event (event group, 20 deaths) were compared with 191 controls (no event group). The event group included 25 patients with ventricular fibrillation or acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and 9 with cardiac arrest due to complete atrioventricular block. The logarithms were calculated of the moving average of 5 successive values for the low-frequency component (LF), the high-frequency component (HF), and the ratio LF/HF of heart rate variability: ln(LF), ln(HF) and ln(LF/HF). A V-shaped trough appeared in the curve of ln(LF/HF) [sV-trough] or ln(HF) [pV-trough] before such an event in 31 patients in the event group. The V-trough was marked by a small variation lasting 2 h, an abrupt descent lasting 30 min, and a sharp ascent for 40 min. An sV-trough was observed in 22 patients before the onset of ventricular fibrillation or AMI. A pV-trough was observed in all 9 patients before the onset of complete atrioventricular block. In the no event group, an sV-trough and a pV-trough were observed in 10 subjects (5%) and 20 subjects (10%), respectively. The positive predictive accuracy of an sV-trough for ventricular fibrillation or AMI and that of a pV-trough for complete atrioventricular block was 88% and 100%, respectively.
Conclusions: A previously unidentified V-trough of autonomic activity is a potential precursor of lethal events.