ABSTRACT
Brain trauma is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality, especially in the urban and industrial societies. Risk factors that increase the mortality of the patients are aging, other organs trauma and cardiac arrhythmia. Some of the ECG abnormalities following traumatic brain Injury are tachy-arrhythmia, brady-arrhythmia, increased QTc interval and changes in ST segment. Traumatic brain patients also show subarachnoid hemorrhage [SAH] and increased QTc intervals. Our aim in this study is to evaluate QTc interval changes in patients with moderate to severe brain injury. This retrospective study was performed on 200 patients with moderate to severe head injury, who were admitted in Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals, in Isfahan city, Iran between years 2004-2006. QTc interval [based on Bazett formula] and level of consciousness [based on Glasgow coma scale] were obtained from the patients' files. Data were analyzed using student t-test and Chi-square test. The most common injury in the patients was intracranial hemorrhage [ICH]. Our study did not show any correlation between age and level of consciousness with QTc interval [P>0.05]. The most common cause of mortality in our patients was subarachnoid hemorrhage [SAH]. There was no significant correlation between causes of injury and patient's mortality [P>0.05]. Evaluating QTc intervals from the files of the patients who were died showed that they had longer QTc interval compared to the alive patients' [P<0.01]. QTc interval was longer in women compared to men [P<0.05]. A direct correlation was seen between decreased level of consciousness and QTc interval elongation [P<0.001]. Our findings show that QTc interval can be used as a good index for mortality in the patients with moderate to severe brain injury. QTc interval prolongation has correlation with severity of consciousness loss and mortality