Clinical utility of aVR lead T-wave in electrocardiogram of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND: aVR lead is often neglected in routine clinical practice largely because of its undefined clinical utility specifications. Nevertheless, positive T-wave in aVR lead has been reported to be associated with poor clinical outcomes in some cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to prospectively investigate the prognostic value and clinical utility of T-wave amplitude in aVR lead in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). METHODS: A total of 340 STEMI patients admitted to a tertiary heart center were consecutively included. Patients were categorized into four strata, based on T wave amplitude in aVR lead in their admission ECG (i.e. < − 2, − 1 to − 2, − 1 to 0, and ≥ 0 mV). Patients’ clinical outcomes were also recorded and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: In-hospital mortality, re-hospitalization, and six-month-mortality significantly varied among four T wave strata and were higher in patients with a T wave amplitude of ≥ 0 mV (p 0.001–0.002). The groups of patients with higher T wave amplitude in aVR, had progressively increased relative risk (RR) of in-hospital mortality (RRs ≤ 0.01, 0.07, 1.00, 2.30 in four T wave strata, respectively). T wave amplitude in the cutoff point of − 1 mV exhibited a sensitivity and specificity of 95.83 (95% CI 78.88–99.89) and 49.68 (95% CI 44.04–55.33). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated a significant association of positive T wave in aVR lead and adverse clinical outcomes in STEMI patients. Nevertheless, the clinical utility of T-wave amplitude at aVR lead is limited by its low discriminative potential toward prognosis of STEMI. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-021-02335-5.