Late ventricular potentials and heavy drinking.

OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of chronic drinking on detection of low amplitude signals, and to determine the relation between late ventricular potentials (LVP) and liver biopsy findings. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING General hospital. PATIENTS 41 consecutive chronic alcoholics without known pre-existing heart disease. METHODS About four days after each patient's last alcoholic drink, ECG, echocardiography, signal averaged electrocardiogram, liver biopsy, and blood tests were performed. RESULTS Twenty eight per cent of patients had evidence of LVP. There was a correlation between the percentage of steatosis of the hepatic biopsy and the amplitude of the last 40 ms of average QRS (P = 0.04), the duration of the terminal low amplitude QRS signal (P = 0.05), and the number of positive criteria of late potentials (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Chronic drinking sufficient to cause steatosis is associated with positive findings on the signal averaged ECG.