Factors associated with a prolonged QT interval in liver cirrhosis patients

Cirrhotic Patients with Child-Pugh C Have Longer QT Intervals

“…Despite similar ages and genders, mean corrected QT in our study was lower than the study by Mozos et al 12 and similar to the results by Genovesi et al 7 and Bal et al 8 The exclusion of alcoholic etiology and inclusion of patients receiving beta-blockers may explain the observed differences in corrected QT in absolute values. Most of all, these studies strengthened the notion that Child-Pugh C patients should be monitored for QT prolongation.…”

“…13 Other factors associated with prolonged QT intervals in cirrhosis are disease severity, serum uric acid levels and alcoholic etiology. 12 The majority of our patients had hepatitis virus infection as the cause of cirrhosis, and this subgroup analysis also showed QT prolongation in cirrhotic Child-Pugh C patients. In addition, patients with more severe cirrhosis had a positive correlation between QT interval and Child-Pugh score.…”

“…Assuming an alpha error of 5% and a SD of 35 ms, we included 11 patients in each group with 80% power to detect a 45 ms difference in the QT intervals between the groups. 12 Statistical significance was determined by α-level of 0.05. We used Statistica 12 (Statsoft, Tulsa, USA) for the database management and statistical analysis.…”

“…Other studies have reported similar results, highlighting the importance of a simple and noninvasive method (ECG) to identify cirrhotic patients with cardiomyopathy. 1,11,12 Even though the mechanism of the prolongation of QT intervals is not fully elucidated, it is attributed to autonomic changes caused by cirrhosis. 14 The QT interval extends from the earliest activation of ventricular myocardium to the end of the latest Original Article ventricular repolarization.…”

QT Interval Prolongation and QRS Voltage Reduction in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

“…The highest values of QT and QTc intervals were observed in class C (Child-Pugh) [4,[13][14][15][16]. Mozos et al confirmed these observations in a study involving 38 patients with cirrhosis; additionally they demonstrated a correlation with alcoholic cirrhosis etiology and the level serum uric acid [17]. Another study carried out on a Greek population revealed a correlation between the QT interval and the severity of cirrhosis, but not between the QT interval and cirrhosis etiology [18].…”