Aims: The purpose of the present study was to determine for the first time the prevalence of Brugada-type electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern (Brugada sign) in unselected individuals served by an urban Greek tertiary hospital during a 4-year time period.
Methods and results: Among 11,488 individuals (6640 males, 4848 females), 25 (23 males, 2 females, aged 36.8 +/- 19.2 years) were found to display the Brugada sign (0.22%). Two cases exhibited the diagnostic type 1 ECG pattern (0.02%) and 23 subjects fulfilled the ECG criteria for type 2 or 3 patterns (0.2%). The incidence of Brugada sign was higher among men (0.34%) than in women (0.04%). Structural heart disease was established in four cases (one of them exhibiting a type 1 ECG pattern). Twenty-one individuals (19 males, 2 females, aged 29.7 +/- 10.7 years) without structural heart disease displaying Brugada-type ECG features (4 cases with spontaneous or procainamide-induced type 1 ECG pattern) were subsequently selected and closely followed up for 24 +/- 12 months. No mortality or life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias were recorded during this period.
Conclusion: The Brugada-type ECG pattern is infrequently seen in a Greek hospital-based population. All subjects with Brugada sign and structurally normal hearts displayed a benign clinical course without arrhythmic events during a relatively long follow-up period.