ABC | Volume 112, Nº1, January 2019

Original Article Eyuboglu & Akdeniz Prehypertension and fragmented QRS Arq Bras Cardiol. 2019; 112(1):59-64 Figure 1 – Flow chart of the study design. JNC7: Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, CAD: coronary artery disease; BBB: bundle branch block; LVH: left ventricular hypertrophy; LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction; ABPM: 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. 283 consecutive newly diagnosed prehypertensive patients according to JNC7 between June 2015 and July 2016 30 patients excluded at baseline; 14 patients for previous history of CAD, 7 patients for BBB and QRS duration ≥ 120 ms, 3 patients for LVH, 3 patients for LVEF < 50%, 2 patients for moderate to severe valvular heart disease, 1 patient with a permanent pacemaker 37 patients excluded due to diagnosis of hypertension after ABPM 253 patients underwent ABPM 216 patients Normotensives n = 61 Dipper prehypertensives n = 83 Non-dipper prehypertensives n = 72 Figure 2 – An example of fragmented QRS in our study population. Discussion The main finding of our study was that the frequency of fQRS was significantly higher in patients with non‑dipper prehypertension compared to normotensives. Furthermore, the presence of fQRS on ECG was found to be a predictor of non-dipping in prehypertensive patients. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the importance of fQRS in prehypertensive patients. Prehypertension confers a high risk of progression to hypertension, and it may be associated with increased adverse cardiovascular events, inflammation, and target organ damage. 2,13,14 Similarly to hypertension, prehypertension consists 61