[The ECG in dilated cardiomyopathy with different degrees of the manifestation of cardiosclerosis].

ECG of 46 patients who had died from dilated cardiomyopathy were retrospectively examined in order to evaluate characteristic ECG changes in relation to myocardial sclerotic severity according to autopsy findings. It was found that 1) one of ECG features in this disease is QRS complex morphology in left chest leads in the form of "rS", "RS" as being independent of cardiosclerotic severity. The deep wave S V5-V6 was due not only to rotation shifts during left ventricular hypertrophy (dilatation), which was typical of dilated cardiomyopathy right ventricle mass; 2) as cardiosclerosis progresses, the frequency and severity of intraventricular conduction disturbances progressively increase; 3) ectopic arrhythmias and atrioventricular block are not caused only by cardiosclerosis and likely to be induced by drug therapy (cardiac glycosides); 4) despite cardiosclerotic development in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, ECG retains voltage criteria of enlarged cardiac cavities; 5) enlarged cardiac cavities can be determined by standard 12 ECG leads in 73.9% of cases.