CETIN GUVENC R, GUREN AK, ENGUR B, CELIK S, DEMIRTUNC R. Interatrial Block and Electrocardiographic Markers of Repolarization in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19: Classical and Bayesian Analysis.
Medeni Med J 2023;
38:236-242. [PMID:
38148690 PMCID:
PMC10759943 DOI:
10.4274/mmj.galenos.2023.87400]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 12/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Objective
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular arrhythmias. Several electrophysiological abnormalities on surface electrocardiography (ECG) are associated with AF and ventricular arrhythmias, either as markers of abnormal interatrial conduction or abnormal repolarization. The present study sought to understand whether such ECG markers are more common in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.
Methods
A total of 87 COVID-19 patients formed the study group, whereas 64 patients who were hospitalized for any reason other than COVID-19 infection served as controls. The frequency of partial and advanced interatrial block (IAB), QT and corrected QT (QTc) durations, QT dispersion (QTd), and T peak-to-end duration (Tpe) were measured from ECGs at admission.
Results
Both partial and advanced IAB were more common in patients with COVID-19, although statistical significance was only observed for advanced IAB (11.5% in COVID-19 patients vs. 0.0% in controls, p=0.005). There were no differences between the groups for QTc, QTd or Tpe. On Bayesian analyses, there was strong evidence favoring an association between COVID-19 and advanced IAB (BF10:16), whereas there was no evidence for an association for partial IAB, QTc, QTd, or Tpe (BF10<1 for all).
Conclusions
Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were more likely to have advanced IAB, which may explain why AF is more frequent in these patients.
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