Relationship between QT interval and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy young subjects

Abstract

A prolongation of QT interval increases the risk for coronary heart disease, ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden death in diabetic patients, after myocardial infarction, and in the elderly. An association between QT prolongation and cardiovascular risk factors has been demonstrated in middle-aged and elderly subjects. Aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of a prolonged corrected QT interval (QTc) in a healthy young population (n ¼ 170, age 22-25 years, 84 males) and to investigate the association of QTc and QT dispersion (QTd) with cardiovascular risk factors (body mass index, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and cholesterol, smoking habits, and hypertensive familiarity). A prolonged QTc was observed in 10% of female and 5% of male subjects; in multiple regression analysis, QTc showed a significant positive relationship with blood glucose in females (P ¼ 0.04) and systolic blood pressure in male subjects (P ¼ 0.03), while QTd was not significantly related with any of the factors.In conclusion, the association between QTc length, glucose levels, and blood pressure is present also in young healthy subjects. QT measurement may represent a useful marker in the screening of young subjects for cardiovascular prevention.

Association between obesity and ECG variables in children and adolescents: A cross-sectional study

“…The results were inconsistent with previous studies ( 19 , 20 , 36 ), which may be due to the effect of other factors. The results in the present study showed that the QTc interval was not associated with obesity which was similar to the result by Leotta et al in a healthy young population ( 23 ).…”

“…Numerous studies have reported a correlation between obesity and QTc interval prolongation ( 20 , 21 ); however, one study showed no correlation between body mass index (BMI) and QTc interval in a healthy population aged 22–25 years ( 23 ). Similarly, the effect of obesity on QTc interval in children is also controversial ( 24 , 25 ).…”

Heart rate recovery after exercise is associated with resting QTc interval in young men

“…Although our participants were not hypertensive, many may be considered prehypertensive. Previous work has shown an association between systolic BP and QT interval [32] and our findings support this relationship. When partitioning out the effect of SBP with partial correlation analysis, the relationship between HRR and QT interval was even stronger.…”

“…Partial correlations were used to examine the effect of predetermined confounders (body mass index, VO 2peak , fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, white blood cell count, triglyceride/ high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio) on the relationship between HRR and QTc [5,23,24,32,38]. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed with QTc as the dependent variable and HRR and select potential confounders as independent variables (body mass index, systolic blood pressure, triglyceride/high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, VO 2peak ).…”

The Association of Prolonged QT Interval on Electrocardiography and Chronic Lead Exposure

“…28,29 Untreated hypertensive patients with LVH are more likely to develop ventricular arrhythmias than the normal population and are at higher risk of sudden cardiac death. 30 Lead exposure had been found to be positively related to blood pressure in Taiwan.…”