Abstract
Background: Epilepsy, febrile convulsion, and breath-holding spells are neurological diseases affecting the heart.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate electrocardiography alterations in children with epilepsy, febrile convulsion, and breath-holding spells compared to controls.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 360 children aged 0.5 - 5 years in Zahedan, Iran. The children with epilepsy, febrile convulsion, and breath-holding spells were diagnosed by a single neurologist based on the standard definition. Electrocardiography was also performed by a pediatric cardiologist. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 software, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Among the participants, 160 (44.4%) were female. Females also comprised 45.6%, 42.2%, 38.9%, and 51.1% of the participants in the epilepsy, febrile convulsion, breath-holding spells, and control groups, respectively. QTd was different in the epilepsy group compared to the controls and patients with breath-holding spells (P < 0.001). Additionally, QTc was significantly different in the epilepsy group in comparison to the controls (P < 0.001) and patients with breath-holding spells (P = 0.020), in the controls compared to the patients with febrile convulsion (P < 0.001), and in the controls in comparison to the patients with breath-holding spells (P < 0.001). QTcd was also different in the epilepsy group compared to the controls (P < 0.001), patients with breath-holding spells (P < 0.001), and those with febrile convulsion (P = 0.006) as well as in the controls in comparison with the patients with febrile convulsion and breath-holding spells (P < 0.001). Finally, QT was different in the patients with breath-holding spells compared to those with epilepsy (P = 0.005), in the patients with breath-holding spells in comparison with the controls (P = 0.002), and in the patients with breath-holding spells compared to those with febrile convulsion (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: The present study findings indicated that QT dispersion was different in the epilepsy group compared to the patients with breath-holding spells, corrected QT was different in the epilepsy group compared with the patients with breath-holding spells, QTc dispersion was different in the epilepsy group in comparison with the patients with breath-holding spells and febrile convulsion, and QT was different in the patients with breath-holding spells compared to those with epilepsy and febrile convulsion.
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© 2022, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.