QT prolongation and minor head trauma: a report of two cases

QT prolongation is rarely seen after acute stress reactions such as burn injury and severe head trauma. Although pathophysiologic mechanism is not entirely clear, acute stress is thought to contribute to the inhomogeneity of ventricular repolarization and it is hypothesized that QTc dispersion increases with severity of acute stress conditions. In the present study, we report long QT syndrome in 2 patients with minor head trauma. Their QTc intervals, i.e. QT intervals corrected for heart rate by the standard Bazett formula, were found to be prolonged (545 and 450 ms, respectively) without creatine phosphokinase - MB elevation. These findings suggest that myocardial effects may occur as a result of probable catecholamine discharge, even if they are not at a level to affect creatine phosphokinase - MB values in minor head trauma. But these findings have not been supported by experimental data, for this reason we need a lot of study in order to confirm this hypothesis.