Assessment of arrhythmias and cardiac autonomic tone at a relatively young age patients with obesity class III

Summary There is no sufficient data on arrhythmias occurrence in obesity class III. The influence of hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance on arrhythmias and cardiac autonomic tone is also of ongoing interest in these subjects. We prospectively studied 81 selected patients with body mass index >40 kg/m 2 , aged 34 (18‐65) years. Among other examinations all subjects underwent electrocardiography and Holter monitoring with heart rate variability (HRV) and turbulence (HRT) evaluation. Controls consisted of 45 healthy, sex‐ and aged‐matched lean volunteers. In patients median BMI was 44.5 kg/m 2 (40.1‐58.1), benign arterial hypertension was present in 43.2% and dysglycemia in 27.2% of cases. In the group with obesity longer PR interval ( P < .001) and corrected QT interval ( P < .001) were observed, while in Holter monitoring no significant differences in supraventricular or ventricular arrhythmias and also bradyarrhythmias prevalence were observed in comparison to controls. In individuals with obesity HRV indices associated with sympathetic tone were significantly impaired and also abnormal HRT values (21.9 vs 0%, P = .04) were more frequently observed. There were no significant correlations between anthropometric obesity parameters and fasting insulin concentration, insulin resistance index and also HRV/HRT parameters in studied individuals. Univariate regression analysis revealed that only age influenced abnormal HRT occurrence (OR 1.69, 95%CI 1.08‐2.98, P = .04). In conclusions, patients with obesity class III at a relatively young age who reported they felt healthy, do not present increased prevalence of arrhythmias, including life‐threatening ones. Cardiac autonomic dysfunction is observed in these patients, however it has not been shown to be associated with anthropometric measurements.