Morikawa J, Furukawa T, Tanaka H, Tsujimura Y, Bamba M, Kitamura K, Habuchi Y
Third Department of Internal Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
J Electrocardiol. 1991 Oct;24(4):387-94. doi: 10.1016/0022-0736(91)90021-d.
The serial changes in the QRS loops of vectorcardiograms were investigated following ligation of a branch of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) by the three-dimensional rotation method in 18 dogs. Concave inflections of the QRS loop, defined as "bites," were best delineated when the loop was viewed from a left cranial or right caudal direction. Bites appeared 48 +/- 8 minutes after LAD ligation in all of the dogs, and their development was closely related to the temporal changes in the % sigma R and QRS point score on a standard 12-lead electrocardiogram. Q waves were not observed on the electrocardiograms in 9 dogs. In the remaining 9, they appeared 117 +/- 18 minutes after LAD ligation. The bite duration, area, and amplitude were compared with the anatomical extent of the infarcts. A significant positive correlation was found between bite duration and infarct size. The detection of bites on the three-dimensionally rotated vectorcardiogram appears to have a high sensitivity for anterior myocardial infarction and could potentially become a useful diagnostic tool.
