Comparison of heart rate and QTc duration in patients of cirrhosis of liver with non-cirrhotic controls.

OBJECTIVE To compare QTc duration and Heart Rate (HR) in patients with cirrhosis with non-cirrhotic controls. DESIGN Cross-sectional analytical study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Civil Hospital and Lyari General Hospital, Karachi, from March 2004 to February 2006. PATIENTS AND METHODS Confirmed patients of cirrhosis were selected and allocated to Group-I. An equal number of non-cirrhotic patients were taken as control and were allocated to Group-II. ECG was recorded and values of HR and QTc were calculated. Comparison of increased frequency of HR and prolongation of QTc were done using Chi-square test or Fisher's Exact Test with significance level at <or= 0.05. ROC curves of HR and QTc were plotted for the presence of cirrhosis. RESULTS Seventy-eight confirmed patients of cirrhosis of liver were inducted in Group-I with same number of non-cirrhotic patients as control in Group-II. The mean +/- SD of QTc of Group-I was 0.438 +/- 0.015 sec and that in Group-II was 0.432 +/- 0.010 sec and that for HR in Group-I and II were 78.34 +/- 12.15 and 74.98+/-8.03 b/min respectively. The mean QTc and HR values were significantly more in Group-I as compared to Group-II with p = 0.006 and p = 0.043 respectively. CONCLUSION Means of both HR and QTc were significantly higher in cirrhotic patients as compared with non-cirrhotic controls.