Increased QT dispersion in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis.

Objectives: Increased dispersion of the QT interval has been proposed to be a novel marker for increased risk of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. This study examined whether QT dispersion is affected in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis.

Methods: We measured the QT interval, corrected QT interval, activation recovery interval, activation time, recovery time, and their respective dispersions in 3 age- and gender-matched groups: patients with alcoholic pancreatitis [age, 58.9 +/- 11.8 years; male/female (M/F), 33/3], patients with alcohol dependence (age, 59.3 +/- 8.9 years; M/F, 33/4), and a healthy control group (age, 55.8 +/- 8.8 years; M/F, 33/3).

Results: The QT dispersions in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis (62.4 +/- 19.9 milliseconds; P < 0.001) or alcohol dependence (58.2 +/- 19.6 milliseconds; P < 0.001) were significantly greater than in the control group (41.4 +/- 13.3 milliseconds). Similarly, the corrected QT dispersions in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis (68.5 +/- 22.8 milliseconds; P < 0.001) or alcohol dependence (65.3 +/- 23.6 milliseconds; P < 0.001) were significantly greater than in the control group (42.8 +/- 13.2 milliseconds). Both QT dispersion and QTc dispersion were longer in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis than those with alcohol dependence (P = 0.011 and P = 0.039, respectively). Simple linear regression analysis of the relationship between the RR and QT intervals revealed that the regression lines for patients with alcoholic pancreatitis and alcohol dependence were almost parallel. However, the slope of the regression line for the control group was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than for the other 2 lines.

Conclusion: The findings demonstrate increased QT and QTc dispersions in patients with either alcoholic pancreatitis or alcohol dependence. The QT dispersion and QTc dispersion were longer in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis than those with alcohol dependence.