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Assessment of QTc interval dispersion in patients with chronic heart failure secondary to Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy.

Pinheiro MB, Bestetti RB, Cordeiro JA

No previous study has examined the association of clinical variables and QTc interval dispersion in patients with Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy. Sixty-four patients with Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy were entered for the study. Seventy-one chronic Chagas' disease heart failure patients and 68 patients with Hypertensive cardiomyopathy heart failure were used in the comparison of QTc interval dispersion. The QTc interval dispersion was defined as the difference between maximum and minimum QTc. Median QTc interval dispersion was 75 (55) ms in patients with Chagas' cardiomyopathy, (56) 73 ms in patients with Hypertensive cardiomyopathy, and (87.3) 98 ms in patients with Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy (p>0.05). In patients with Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy, median QTc interval was (134) 100 ms in survivors and (87) 96 ms in nonsurvivors (p>0.05). Thus, QTc interval dispersion values in patients with Chagas-Hypertensive cardiomyopathy are not associated with mortality and similar to those found in patients with Chagas' cardiomyopathy and in patients with Hypertensive cardiomyopathy.

Published 27 August 2007 in Int J Cardiol, 121(1): 93-4.
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