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Published on: April 5, 2011
Electrocardiographic abnormalities in neurological diseases
Rui Póvoa1, Luciano Cavichio, Ana Lúcia de Almeida
1Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual, Sao Paulo, SP.
Objective:
To evaluate electrocardiographic abnormalities in patients with neurologic diseases.
Methods:
We studied 161 patients with neurologic disorders by analyzing the 12-lead electrocardiogram during the pathological process. An expert who did not know anything about the patients evaluated the traces.
Results:
Neurological process included brain tumor (41%), stroke (27.3%), cerebral aneurysm (15.5%), subarachnoid hemorrhage (6.8%), subdural hemorrhage (5%), and head injury (4.4%). Electrocardiograms were normal in 61% of cases, and the most frequent abnormality was ventricular repolarization (23.7%). The presence of T waves (4.6%) and prolonged QT intervals (8.8%) was the most characteristic of brain injuries.
Conclusion:
We observed a lower incidence of electrocardiographic abnormalities than that described in the literature.
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