Background Psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis. This study compared subclinical

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of obesity on dispersion of P-wave duration and QTc interval in obese women. Methods: Forty-two obese women (Body mass index (BMI) ¼ 4073 kg/m 2 , mean age 4579 years) and compared agematched (BMI ¼ 2271 kg/m 2 , mean age 4176 years) twenty-five non-obese women were included in our study. Maximum and minimum P-wave duration, P-wave dispersion (difference between the maximum and the minimum P-wave duration), maximum and minimum QTc interval, and QTc dispersion (the difference between the maximum and the minimum QTc interval) were measured from 12-lead ECG. ECG's were transferred to a personal computer via a scanner and then used for magnification of 400 times by Adobe Photoshop software. Results: There was significant difference in BMI (4073 vs 2271 kg/m 2 , Po0.001, respectively) between obese and non-obese women. Obese women had higher Max. P-wave duration (116711 vs 94714 ms, Po0.001), P-wave dispersion (51715 vs 26711 ms, Po0.001), Max. QTc interval (449738 vs 419730 ms, Po0.001) and QTc dispersion (57723 vs 38715 ms, Po0.001) compared to non-obese women. A significant correlation was found between BMI and Max. P-wave duration (r ¼ 0.584, Po0.001), P-wave dispersion (r ¼ 0.621, Po0.001), Max. QTc interval (r ¼ 0.410, Po0.001), and QTc dispersion (r ¼ 0.429, Po0.001). In the linear regression analysis, compared to co-morbidity factors such as age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and smoking, there was significant association between only BMI and electrocardiographic values (P-wave and QTc dispersion). Conclusion: We concluded that obesity caused significant increase in P-wave and QTc dispersion. Therefore, obese women may not only be under the risk of ventricular arrhythmias, but also they may under the risk of atrial arrhythmias.

Background: QT dispersion has been proposed to be a predictor of adverse outcomes in a variety of cardiac disease states. The objective of this study was to examine QT dispersion in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and to assess the effect of pulmonary hypertension (PHT) on QT dispersion. Methods: We performed Doppler echocardiographic assessments of pulmonary artery systolic pressure in 73 (mean age 18.5 ± 8.0 years) steady-state SCD patients and 25 (mean age 19.6 ± 7.2 years) healthy subjects. Resting 12-lead electrocardiogram was recorded and QT dispersion was calculated as the difference between maximum and minimum QT intervals. Bazett’s formula was used to obtain a rate-corrected value of the QT interval (QTc). Results: Maximum QTc, minimum QTc and QTc dispersion were significantly increased in SCD patients compared to the control subjects (p < 0.0001, p < 0.05, p < 0.0001, respectively). Among SCD patients, patients with PHT had higher maximum QTc and QTc dispersion than patients without PHT (p < 0.0001). However, minimum QTc showed no significant differences between the two patient groups. Conclusion: QTc dispersion is significantly increased in SCD patients, especially those with PHT indicating regional inhomogeneity of ventricular repolarization.

DURU, MEHMET, ERGUN SEYFELI, GUVEN KUVANDIK, HASAN KAYA, AND FATIH YALCIN. Effect of weight loss on P wave dispersion in obese subjects. Obesity. 2006;14:1378 -1382. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate effect of loss weight on P wave dispersion in obese subjects. Research Methods and Procedures: After a 12-week weight loss program (diet and medical therapy), a total of 30 (24 women and six men) obese subjects who had lost at least 10% of their original weight were included in the present study. All subjects underwent a routine standard 12-lead surface electrocardiogram. Electrocardiograms were transferred to a personal computer by a scanner and then magnified 400 times by Adobe Photoshop software (Adobe Systems, Mountain View, CA). P wave dispersion, which is also defined as the difference between the maximum P wave duration and the minimum P wave duration, was also calculated. Results: After a 12-week weight loss program, BMI (p Ͻ 0.001), maximum P wave duration (p Ͻ 0.001), and P wave dispersion (p Ͻ 0.001) significantly decreased. The mean percentage of weight loss was 13% (10% to 20.3%). The decrease in the level of P wave dispersion (21 Ϯ 10 and 7 Ϯ 12 ms, p Ͻ 0.002) was more prominent in Group II (Ն12% loss of their original weight) than Group I (Ͻ12% loss of their original weight) after the weight loss program. A statistically significant correlation between decrease in the level of P wave dispersion and percentage of weight loss was found (r ϭ 0.624, p Ͻ 0.001). Discussion: Substantial weight loss in obese subjects is associated with a decrease of P wave duration and dispersion. Therefore, these observations suggest that substantial weight loss is associated with improvement in atrial repolarization abnormalities in obese subjects.

The aim of this study was to investigate increase of QTc dispersion and P-wave dispersion during migraine attacks. Fifty-five patients (16-65 years of age, 49 women, six men) with migraine were included in our study. Heart rate, QTc interval, maximum and minimum QTc interval, QTc dispersion, maximum and minimum P-wave duration and P-wave dispersion were measured from 12-lead ECG recording during migraine attacks and pain-free periods. ECGs were transferred to a personal computer via a scanner and then used for magnification of x400 by Adobe Photoshop software. Maximum QTc interval (454 +/- 24 ms vs. 429 +/- 23 ms, P < 0.001), QTc interval (443 +/- 26 ms vs. 408 +/- 22 ms, P < 0.001) and QTc dispersion (63 +/- 18 ms vs. 43 +/- 14 ms, P < 0.001) were found significantly higher during migraine attacks compared with pain-free periods. Maximum P-wave duration (107 +/- 11 ms vs. 100 +/- 11 ms, P < 0.001) and P-wave dispersion (45 +/- 13 ms vs. 35 +/- 13 ms, P< 0.001) were found higher during migraine attacks than pain-free periods. We concluded that migraine attacks are associated with increased QTc and P-wave dispersion compared with pain-free periods.