T-Wave Alternans in Nonpathological Preterm Infants.
Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol
; 25(4): e12745, 2020 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31986237
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Sudden infant death syndrome is more frequent in preterm infants (PTI) than term infants and may be due to cardiac repolarization instability, which may manifest as T-wave alternans (TWA) on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Therefore, the aim of the present work was to analyze TWA in nonpathological PTI and to open an issue on its physiological interpretation.METHODS:
Clinical population consisted of ten nonpathological PTI (gestational age ranging from 29 37 to 34 27 weeks; birth weight ranging from 0.84 to 2.10 kg) from whom ECG recordings were obtained ("Preterm infant cardio-respiratory signals database" by Physionet). TWA was identified through the heart-rate adapting match filter method and characterized in terms of mean amplitude values (TWAA). TWA correlation with several other clinical and ECG features, among which gestational age-birth weight ratio, RR interval, heart-rate variability, and QT interval, was also performed.RESULTS:
TWA was variable among infants (TWAA = 26 ± 11 µV). Significant correlations were found between TWAA versus birth weight (ρ = -0.72, p = .02), TWAA versus gestational age-birth weight ratio (ρ = 0.76, p = .02) and TWAA versus heart-rate variability (ρ = -0.71, p = .02).CONCLUSIONS:
Our preliminary retrospective study suggests that nonpathological PTI show TWA of few tens of µV, the interpretation of which is still an open issue but could indicate a condition of cardiac risk possibly related to the low development status of the infant. Further investigations are needed to solve this issue.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Arritmias Cardíacas
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Recém-Nascido Prematuro
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Eletrocardiografia
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
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Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Female
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Humans
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Male
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Newborn
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article