Introduction
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with coronary heart disease worldwide. It is important to identify high-risk patients, and the main goal of treatment in AMI is to restore microvascular flow and maintain myocardial perfusion (1). Various markers such as electrocardiography and coronary angiography have been used to determine myocardial reperfusion (2,3).
Fragmented QRS in 12-lead ECG has been shown to be associated with myocardial scarring in heart disease (4,5) and it is also associated with cardiac mortality and morbidity in heart disease (6,7). The presence of f-QRS has been associated with predicting ventricular tachyarrhythmia in ischemic cardiomyopathy, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, Brugada syndrome, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and it has been also associated with sudden cardiac death in these diseases (8).
Although f-QRS is associated with depolarization, it is so far poorly understood regarding microvascular function in patients with acute myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between microvascular dysfunction and the presence of f-QRS in patients with acute inferior myocardial infarction (MI) who underwent successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI).