Frequency of different electrocardiographic abnormalities in a large cohort of Spanish workers

Abstract

The resting electrocardiogram (ECG) has proved to be a useful tool in the field of cardiovascular medicine. It has been used as a diagnostic tool in symptomatic patients, and it has also been traditionally employed in the screening of the apparently healthy population.1 However, the role of resting ECG in screening a healthy population, of which the working population is assumed to be a part of, remains controversial. Knowledge of the prevalence of electrocardiographic abnormalities in the working population could be useful for the development and evaluation of the results of screening protocols based on resting ECG. Many studies have evaluated electrocardiographic findings in different samples of workers, but all focused on a specific employment sector2 or a particular electrocardiographic pattern.3 The aim of this study was to describe the electrocardiographic findings of a large sample of both male and female Spanish workers of all ages in the working population of several different employment sectors.