QT Interval Analysis in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Abstract

The prevalance of QT prolongation in chronic viral liver disease is high and the risk of complications is increased. We wanted to study the QT interval prolongation at the patients diagnosed with chronic hepatic disease and also to evaluate some of clinical and biochemical variables. We studied a cohort with 126 patients diagnosed with chronic viral hepatic diseases hospitalised to Cardiology Department, to the County Hospital of Craiova, between Octomber 2016 and January 2018. We aimed to determine the occurrence of QT interval prolongation in a large series of patients with chronic hepatic disease of viral etiology. We wanted to evaluated the QT prolongation to clinical and biochemical variables. The QT interval was measured by a standard 12-lead ECG for each patient, with prolongation defined as 460 ms. Multiple clinical and biochemical variables were evaluated including sex, age, areas (rural/urban) the frequency of arrhythmic events (PACs, PVCs, Atrial fibrillation, Bradycardia, Tachycardia), NT proBNP, Hb,uric acid, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) , cholesterol, triglyceride, etc. The group of patients was composed by 43 woman and 83 men. From 43 women, representing 65.06% (461.56 �42.03) and from 83 men, means 66.67% (461.14 � 45.10) presented interval QT prolongation. Studing the distribution of hepatic etiologies we can see that 34 patients had hepatitis B, 35 patients hepatitis C, 5 patients B and C dual virus infection and 52 patients with chronic liver disease of etiology other than viral. We registered close results about QT interval prolongation on group, sex and origine group of patients. The value of QT interval to our patients was higher compared to other values recorder in other studies, at the patients with chronic hepatic disease, despide the fact we chose a higher value of QT prolongation. The highest value of QT interval was in the group of age between 60 and 69, even if in other studies we notice a prolonged QT interval at patients over 70 years old. The biological and biochemical profile of chronic hepatic disease of the subjects included in our study showed no statistical difference between male and female patients.We found a higher incidence of arrhythmic events, at patients with chronic hepatic disease of viral etiology, especially to premature atrial contraction and atrial fibrillation.We found a couple of correlation between QT interval prolongation and the evolution of chronic hepatic disease of viral etiology. It is very important to develop a strong and complex strategies to prevent and to treat the arrhythmic event presented at the patients diagnosticated with hepatic disease, because of the higher risk of developing life-threatening arrhythmias, includen sudden cardiac death.