The relationship between electrocardiographic data and mortality in children diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy

The mortality causes of patients followed up due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) include complications related to heart failure, ventricular arrhythmia, and transplantation. This study aims to evaluate the electrocardiographic findings of patients diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and determine its relationship with mortality. The electrocardiographic, clinical, and laboratory findings of patients diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy between January 1, 2012, and September 1, 2018, in our university’s pediatric cardiology department were retrospectively evaluated. The electrocardiographic findings of surviving and exitus dilated cardiomyopathy patients were compared and their effect on mortality was investigated. Twelve of the total 85 patients diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy were deceased. According to the electrocardiographic findings of surviving and exitus patients, there was a statistically significant difference in terms of P maximum (Pmax), P dispersion (Pdis), QT dispersion (QTdis), QTc maximum (QTcmax), QTc dispersion (QTcdis), Tp-e maximum (Tp-emax), Tp-e dispersion (Tp-edis), and QRS time. Hypertrophy and ischemia findings of electrocardiography were also statistically significant. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups according to the echocardiographic findings of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular shortening fraction (LVSF), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), and left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESd) measurements. It is well known that children diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy are at greater risk of arrhythmia compared with normal children. Although previous studies have determined the relationship between mortality and a limited number of electrocardiographic findings, especially in adults, the relationship between electrocardiography findings of children diagnosed with DCM and mortality has not been investigated before in such detail, as in our study.

Conclusion: In this study, the significant difference between the electrocardiographic data of deceased and surviving dilated cardiomyopathy patients suggests that electrocardiographic data should be evaluated in detail in order to determine the low and high risk of mortality in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.