Shlomo Stern

The year of 2007 in electrocardiology.

Upon receiving the most prestigious invitation from the editor of this journal to review last year’s most outstanding publications in electrocardiology, I was not at all sure that my search would produce 50 innovative articles as it did when critically reviewing the years 2005 and 2006.1,2 I was wrong. Most notable advances were again made in the realm of electrocardiology during this past year and it was even more difficult to limit the number of meritable publications to 50. Omissions were inevitable and I wish to apologize in advance to the authors who don’t find their articles quoted. Together, let’s look forward to similarly original and novel publications in 2008 as well.

The Year of 2006 in Electrocardiology

A detailed analysis of the P-wave morphology in focal atrial tachycardia was done by Kistler et al.,3 who classified them as positive, negative, isoelectric, or biphasic. The authors prospectively evaluated 30 new consecutive patients with focal atrial tachycardia. Their P-wave algorithm correctly identified the site of tachycardia origin in 93%. Lead V1 was the most useful in identifying the likely anatomic site of the origin of the focal atrial tachycardia.

The Year of 2012 in Electrocardiology

Since my first assignment in 2005 to review for ANE the year’s most important publications on 12lead electrocardiograms (ECG),1 this task is getting more and more difficult. It is hard to believe, but the number and quality of investigations describing new and exciting information derived from this classic and “old” diagnostic procedure is increasing every year. My hands have been tied over the years as I had to limit the number of publications to 50. Thus, all I can do is to hail the authors whose publication is being reviewed here and apologize to the others whose papers, probably not less important than the others, are not among the reviewed articles.

The year of 2009 in electrocardiology.

Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol 2010;15(4):378‐383

The Year of 2008 in Electrocardiology

Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol 2010;15(1):85–89

The year of 2011 in electrocardiology.

Undoubtedly, last year the subject of ER raised the most vivid discussion among electrocardiographists and electrophysiologists. Based on a follow-up of about 10 years of over 15,000 middleaged subjects, Olson et al.1 demonstrated that the characteristic ST-elevation at the J-point was associated with an increased sudden cardiac death (SCD) in whites and in females, but not in blacks or males. Japanese investigators2 reviewed the ECG records of nearly 6000 atomic bomb survivors who were examined at least once during biannual health examinations in Nagasaki between 1958 and 2004; ER pattern had an elevated risk of unexpected death and a decreased risk of cardiac and all-cause death, although the hazard ratio for unexpected death in ER pattern was lower than that in patients with Brugada (Br)-type ECG. The characteristics of the ECG manifestations of ER in a general population was scrutinized by Tikkanen et al.;3 subjects with ER ≥ 0.1 mV and horizontal/descending ST-variant had an increased hazard ratio of arrhythmic death; an even higher hazard ratio of arrhythmic death was observed with higher amplitude ER in inferior leads and horizontal/descending ST-segment variant. In subjects with ascending ST, the relative risk for arrhythmic deaths was not increased. The heritability basis of ER pattern in the general population was stressed by Noseworthy et al.,4 al-