TABLE 4.
General features, cardiovascular profile, antiarrhythmic treatment, and ECG measurements in the subgroups of arrhythmic patients with previously diagnosed arrhythmias and with new onset arrhythmias.
| Prior arrhythmias (n = 34) | New arrhythmias (n = 46) | p-value | |
| General findings | |||
| Age (years) | 76.5 (71–80) | 72.5 (63–81) | 0.08 |
| Death (%) | 26.5 | 23.9 | 0.79 |
| Comorbidities | 3 (2–5) | 3 (2–4) | 0.89 |
| Lung computed tomography score | 9 (5–13) | 8 (5–12) | 0.99 |
| Lung ultrasound score | 11 (7–14) | 14 (8–20) | 0.19 |
| Main cardiovascular morbidities | |||
| Arterial hypertension (%) | 79.4 | 60.9 | 0.09 |
| Coronary artery disease (%) | 33.3 | 24.4 | 0.45 |
| Heart failure (%) | 17.6 | 13.0 | 0.57 |
| ICD/PPM (%) | 29.4 | 0 | – |
| Antiarrhythmic drugs | |||
| Beta blockers (%) | 23.5 | 21.7 | 0.85 |
| NDCCA (%) | 5.9 | 6.5 | 0.91 |
| Class I antiarrhythmic drugs (%) | 20.6 | 21.7 | 0.90 |
| Class III antiarrhythmic drugs (%) | 11.8 | 13.0 | 0.86 |
| Digitalis glycosides (%) | 2.9 | 4.3 | 0.74 |
| ECG parameters | |||
| QT (msec) | |||
| At admission | 0.36 (0.33–0.38) | 0.36 (0.34–0.38) | 0.53 |
| At dischargea | 0.36 (0.32–0.40) | 0.36 (0.34–0.40) | 0.97 |
| QTc (msec) | |||
| At admission | 0.42 (0.40–0.46) | 0.42 (0.39–0.43) | 0.36 |
| At dischargea | 0.41 (0.37–0.43) | 0.40 (0.39–0.44) | 0.78 |
| QTc dispersion (msec) | |||
| At admission | 95 (80–110) | 80 (60–110) | 0.23 |
| At dischargea | 70 (50–80) | 50 (50–80) | 0.65 |
aCalculated in 60 patients; values are presented as median (interquartile range) or as (%).
ICD/PPM, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator/permanent pacemaker; NDCCA, non-dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists; New arrhythmias, new-onset arrhythmias; Prior arrhythmias, previously diagnosed arrhythmias; QTc, heart rate-corrected QT interval.