Effect of Weight Loss following Bariatric Surgery on Myocardial Dispersion of Repolarization in Morbidly Obese Patients

Abstract

In severely obese patients, surgically-induced weight loss is associated with significant decrease in the heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization. The reduction of spatial (QTc-d, JTc-d) and transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) may be of clinical significance, by reducing the risk of potentially fatal arrhythmias in morbidly obese subjects.

Surgical Management of Obesity and the Relationship to Cardiovascular Disease

“…Weight loss surgery appears to be associated with a decrease in the heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization 159 and may improve the QT interval and QT dispersion. 160,161 Such electrophysiological modulation may reduce the substrate for ventricular arrhythmias in this high-risk patient population.…”

Severe Obesity and P-Wave Dispersion: The Effect of Surgically Induced Weight Loss

“…Furthermore, Frost et al [8] have suggested that AF and flutter should be added to the list of diseases caused by overweight and obesity. We recently reported that increased electrocardiographic parameter of heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization in obese patients returned to normal range after weight loss following bariatric surgery [9]. To our knowledge, no data about the influence of surgically induced weight loss on the heterogeneity of atrial refractoriness, identified on the electrocardiogram by PD, has been yet reported in literature.…”

QT Interval Shortening After Bariatric Surgery Depends on the Applied Heart Rate Correction Equation

“…An abnormal ventricular repolarization, which predisposes to sudden death upon cardiac arrhythmia [3], may contribute to the increased mortality risk since obesity has been found to be associated with a high prevalence of a prolonged QT interval in electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings [4]. Furthermore, weight loss, in particular when induced by bariatric surgery, has been found to reduce QT interval (QTc) length in many studies (for overview see Table 1) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, the validity of this observation has been challenged by one previous study [9] that demonstrated that the significance of QTc shortening upon weight loss gets lost when the QT interval is corrected for heart rate (HR) by using Fridericia or Framingham correction equation instead of the most commonly used Bazett equation.…”