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Electrocardiographic findings in adolescents with eating disorders
C Panagiotopoulos1, B W McCrindle, K Hick
1Divisions of Adolescent Medicine and Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Objectives:
We sought to determine the prevalence and clinical correlates of electrocardiographic findings in adolescents with eating disorders.
Study Design:
We undertook matched case-control study of electrocardiographic findings at initial assessment in 62 adolescents with anorexia nervosa, 9 with bulimia nervosa, and 26 with eating disorder not otherwise specified presenting from March 1995 to September 1996.
Results:
Mean (+/- 1 standard deviation) age was 15.0 +/- 1.4 years (95% were female). Patients with anorexia nervosa had significantly lower heart rates (mean case-control difference: -20 +/- 17 beats per minute), lower R in V(6) (-2.6 +/- 5.5 mm), longer QRS interval (+.004 +/-.010 seconds), shorter mean QTc (-.0136 +/-.033 seconds) and lesser QTc dispersion (-.010 +/-. 031 seconds). The bulimia nervosa group had slightly longer mean QTc (.019 +/-.020 seconds), with no significant case-control differences in the eating disorder not otherwise specified group.
Conclusion:
Electrocardiographic findings are abnormal in adolescents with anorexia nervosa but not in adolescents with bulimia nervosa or eating disorder not otherwise specified.