A Study of Electrocardiographic Pattern of Normal School Children Aged between 5-15 Years in Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh

Introduction: Electrocardiography is a simple, non-invasive and relatively cheap investigative tool used for cardiac evaluation. However, there are limited electrocardiographic studies of Indian children. These differences may also be seen in children, hence, the need to develop local reference values. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on selected 350 subjects. An 12 lead ECG was measured on all subjects. Results: There were one hundred and eighty males (53.3 %) and one hundred and seventy hundred females (46.7 %). The mean heart rate decreased with increasing age. R wave amplitudes were higher in the left precordial leads, in keeping with left ventricular dominance. Mean values were higher in males than females in the three age-groups in most of the precordial and limb leads. In V4R,V2, andV3highest mean R wave voltages of 0.5+0.1 mV, 1.4+0.3 mV and 1.4+0.2 mV were recorded in the 5-7-year-old. While in V5, and V6the mean R waves were higher in the 12-15-year-old age-group (3.7+ 0.5mV and 2.5+0.4 mV respectively). The S-Waves showed progressive decrease in its amplitude on the left precordial leads with increasing age. Conclusion: The mean values in heart rate, QRS duration, PR interval, P wave amplitude showed higher amplitudes in males. Similarly higher amplitudes of R-waves in male children were recorded in precordial leads V2, V3, V5 and V6 in the three age-groups.