ElectrophysiologyPrevalence of premature ventricular contractions in a population of African American and white men and women: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study*,**
Section snippets
Methods
Data were collected during the baseline examinations of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The ARIC study is a prospective cohort study investigating the etiology of atherosclerosis and the variation in cardiovascular risk factors, medical care, and disease by ethnicity, sex, place, and time. Four US communities take part in the ARIC study: Forsyth County, NC, Jackson, Miss, selected northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, Minn, and Washington County, Md. Informed consent is
Results
PVCs are present in >6% of the population, with prevalences ranging from <3% for younger white women without heart disease to approximately 20% for older, male African Americans with heart disease. The prevalence of PVCs increases with advancing age within each ethnic and sex group, so that for women the prevalence approximately doubles and for men triples from age 45 to 65 years. Similarly, heart disease is associated with an approximate doubling of the prevalence of PVCs.
The age-adjusted
Discussion
PVCs on a 2-minute ECG are common in middle-aged men and women. The prevalence of PVCs showed a strong, direct relationship to heart disease, advancing age, male sex, African American ethnicity, low educational attainment, and low serum magnesium levels. The higher prevalence seen with low educational attainment is greater than that associated with being African American, each controlled for the other and the other risk factors shown in Table IV. Low educational attainment is an important
Acknowledgements
We thank the staff and participants in the ARIC study for their important contributions.
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Supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute contracts No. N01-HC-55015, N01-HC-55016, N01-HC-55018, N01-HC-55019, N01-HC-55020, N01-HC-55021, and N01-HC-55022.
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Reprint requests: Ross J. Simpson, Jr, MD, PhD, Division of Cardiology, CB#7075, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7075. E-mail: [email protected]