English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system like alcoholic cardiomyopathy and severe heart failure has been seen in those who are having chronic or heavy alcohol consumption. Majority of the clinical studies were based on selected group of patients like severe heart failure, as compared to that, the study among asymptomatic alcoholics were not well studied. Chronic and heavy alcohol consumption leads to adverse effects like arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation and life-threatening re-entrant ventricular arrhythmias which can be predicted by studying QTc interval. The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of alcohol dependence on QTc interval. METHODS This is a Hospital based case control study conducted among patients admitted in SNMC & HSK hospital with diagnosis as Alcohol Dependence Syndrome (ADS) according to International classification of diseases (ICD) 10 criteria from October 2020 to December 2020. 30 alcohol dependence cases and 30 age matched controls above 18 years of age were selected. The ECG was recorded in lying down and resting position. The ECG results were analysed for QTc interval. Sample size estimation was done using open epi Software version 2.3.1. RESULTS Among the 30 cases, 53.3 % had prolonged QTc interval. Out of these, 11 were in the age group of 18 - 35 years, 17 were in 36 - 55 years while 2 were in the age group > 55 years while in 30 controls only 1 had prolonged QTc in the age group of 36 - 55 years. CONCLUSIONS A prolonged QTc interval was observed in 16 out of 30 cases which provides the evidence, that prolonged QTc interval was significant in alcohol dependence patients. Hence, early detection of ECG changes like prolonged QTc interval will help in preventing the adverse cardiovascular events and comorbidities associated with it. KEYWORDS QTc Interval, ECG, Alcohol Dependence