Relationship of index of cardiac electrophysiological balance with cigarette smoking in young adults

Purpose: Cigarette smoking constitutes a robust risk for cardiovascular diseases, and is associated with mortality and morbidity. Index of cardiac electrophysiological balance (iCEB), is calculated from surface ECG. It is a new and simple ECG marker capable of predicting ventricular arrhythmogenesis. We investigated whether QT, corrected QT (QTc), Tp-Te interval as well as new ventricular repolarization parameters such as iCEB are prolonged or not in the smoking and non-smoking young males. Materials and Methods: Our study was designed retrospectively. The included patients were between 20-30 of age-old males who admitted to our hospital’s cardiology outpatient clinic between June 2019 and October 2019. They were divided into 2 groups as smokers (n:91) and non-smokers (n:118). From the beginning of the QRS complex to the end of the T wave, QT interval was measured and QT interval was corrected using the Bazett’s formulae. Then, QTc/QRS, Tp-e/QTc, QT/QRS, and Tp-e/QT ratios were calculated. iCEB, namely the ratio of QT to QRS (QT/QRS) was calculated from surface ECG. Results: QT/QRS (iCEB), Tpeak-Tend, QTc, Tp-Te/QT, QT, Tp-Te/QTc, QRS, and QTc/QRS values were not significantly different between the groups. The mean white Blood Cell (WBC) and lymphocyte counts of the smokers were higher compared to non-smokers, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: We showed that Tp-Te interval, iCEB, Tp-Te/QT and Tp-Te/QTc did not change significantly in the otherwise healthy young male smokers as compared to the nonsmokers. As far as we know, this study is the first to investigate the ICEB values in young smoker subjects.