A new electrocardiographic parameter associated with sudden cardiac death in pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Introduction: The interval from the peak to the end of the electrocardiographic T wave (T _p -T _e ) may correspond to malignant ventricular arrhythmias. In this study we aimed to assess T _p -T _e variability and investigate the transmural dispersion of repolarisation in pulmonary sarcoidosis disease without proofed cardiac involvement.
Material and Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study that included patients who had a pathologic and radiologic diagnosis of sarcoidosis. All data of the patients' demographic features and electrocardiographs were analysed.
Results: We enrolled 78 patients with sarcoidosis and 54 healthy volunteers as controls in our study. Men comprised 36% of the sarcoidosis group and 27% of controls. The mean age in the sarcoidosis and control group was 45.4 ±8.7 years (range: 23-58 years) and 44.6 ±11.9 years (range: 21-73 years), respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups for age or sex ( p = 0.654, p = 0.246, respectively). There was a significant increase in T _p -T _e results in all precordial leads in the sarcoidosis group compared with the control group ( p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Pulmonary sarcoidosis is suspected to have cardiac involvement; therefore, we need to develop new approaches. We present strong evidence that T _p -T _e intervals were increased in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, which suggests that there may be a link between sarcoidosis and ventricular arrhythmias without proofed cardiac involvement.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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