High risk of ventricular repolarization abnormalities among hemodialytic end-stage renal disease patients

Introduction: Patients with chronic renal disease (CKD) are at a significantly elevated risk for ventricular arrhythmia. Several electrocardiographic (ECG) methods can be used to assess the ventricular arrhythmia risk on the standard 12-lead ECG. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the ECG parameters of ventricular repolarization abnormalities, such as QT, QTc, Tp-e, and Tp-e/QT ratio, Tp-e/QTc ratio, and their predictors in hemodialytic end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Materials and methods: Fifty-three patients with hemodialytic ESRD and 32 pre-dialytic CKD patients were enrolled in the study. ECG parameters were measured manually using calipers. The independent samples t-test was used for comparative analysis. The multivariate linear regression analysis was used to distinguish the independent predictors of each ECG parameters and variables correlating significantly in bivariate analysis. Results: Mean ages of hemodialytics and pre-dialytics were 47±11 and 51±7 years, respectively. Ventricular repolarization abnormalities in the hemodialytic compared to the pre-dialytic group were found to be significantly different [QTc (448±34 vs. 428±31 ms, p=0.007), Tp-e (81±20 vs. 71±19 ms, p=0.025), Tp-e/QT (0.23±0.06 vs. 0.20±0.05, p=0.043)]. QTc interval was positively correlated with sodium (p=0.001) and age (p=0.007). Tp-e/QT ratio was the ECG parameter correlated to most of variables including eGFR (p=0.003), creatinine (p=0.040), potassium (p=0.009), chloride (p=0.048), and glucose (p=0.041). Conclusions: Ventricular repolarization was found to be increased in patients with hemodialytic ESRD. Hence, observation ECG parameters of ventricular repolarization should be performed in the hemodialytic patients for early detection of ventricular arrhythmia.