• Ahmet Temiz, Emine Gazi, Omer Güngör, Burak Altun, Ahmet Barutcu, Adem Bekler, Yusuf Ziya Tan, Sedat Ozcan, Ali Ümit Yener, and Tolga Kurt.
• Ahmet Temiz, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiology, Çanakkale 18 Mart University Medical Faculty, Çanakkale, Turkey.
• Pak J Med Sci. 2014 Jul 1; 30 (4): 862-7.

ObjectivePrior studies have demonstrated the relationship between cardiovascular diseases and fragmented QRS (fQRS). fQRS was also associated with ventricular arrhythmias. Our objective was to find out the relationship between fQRS and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF).MethodA total of 301 patients without overt structural heart disease were prospectively included in the study. Patients were divided in to 2 groups according to presence of fQRS. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the predictive value of fQRS for predicting PAF.ResultsOne hundred and three patients had fQRS. Patients with fQRS were older (53±16.8 vs 45.3±17.2, p<0.001), with larger left atrium (LA) (33.2±5.9 vs 30.1±5.9 mm, p=0.001), with thicker interventricular septum (IVS) (10.2±1.9 vs 9.5±2.3 mm, p=0.032), more diabetic (19.8 vs 10.6%, p=0.029) and have more PAF episodes (22.3 vs 4.1%, p<0.001) in comparison with patients without fQRS. fQRS was an independent predictor of detecting PAF episode (odds ratio, 9.69; 95% confidence interval, 2.46-38.15, p=0.001). Hypertension and diabetes mellitus were also predictive.ConclusionThe presence of fQRS independently predicted PAF episodes in holter monitoring (HM). Further studies are needed to clarify the clinical implications of this finding.

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