A new electrocardiographic parameter associated with sudden cardiac death in pulmonary sarcoidosis

The interval from the peak to the end of the electrocardiographic T wave (T_p-T_e) may correspond to malignant ventricular arrhythmias. In this study we aimed to assess T_p-T_e variability and investigate the transmural dispersion of repolarisation in pulmonary sarcoidosis disease without proofed cardiac involvement.

This was a retrospective case-control study that included patients who had a pathologic and radiologic diagnosis of sarcoidosis. All data of the patients' demographic features and electrocardiographs were analysed.

We enrolled 78 patients with sarcoidosis and 54 healthy volunteers as controls in our study. Men comprised 36% of the sarcoidosis group and 27% of controls. The mean age in the sarcoidosis and control group was 45.4 ±8.7 years (range: 23-58 years) and 44.6 ±11.9 years (range: 21-73 years), respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups for age or sex (p = 0.654, p = 0.246, respectively). There was a significant increase in T_p-T_e results in all precordial leads in the sarcoidosis group compared with the control group (p < 0.05).

Pulmonary sarcoidosis is suspected to have cardiac involvement; therefore, we need to develop new approaches. We present strong evidence that T_p-T_e intervals were increased in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, which suggests that there may be a link between sarcoidosis and ventricular arrhythmias without proofed cardiac involvement.