Predictive value of Tp-e interval, Tp-e/QT, and Tp-e/QTc for disease severity in patients with liver cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVE: The cardiovascular system is one of the most affected systems in the liver cirrhosis (LC) process, especially due to the tendency to arrhythmia. Since the data about the relationship between LC and novel electrocardiography (ECG) indexes are lacking, we aimed to investigate the association between LC and Tp-e interval, Tp-e/QT, and Tp-e/QTc ratio. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 100 patients in the study group (56 male, median age 60) and 100 in the control group (52 female, 60 median age) between January 2021 and January 2022. ECG indexes and laboratory findings were analyzed. RESULTS: The patient group had significantly higher heart rate (HR), Tp-e, Tp-e/QT, and Tp-e/QTc compared to the control group (p < 0.001 for all). There was no difference in terms of QT, QTc, QRS (depolarization of ventricles, involving Q, R, and S waves on ECG) duration, and ejection fraction between the two groups. Kruskal-Wallis test results revealed that there was a significant difference between Child stages in terms of HR, QT, QTc, Tp-e, Tp-e/QT, Tp-e/QTc, and QRS duration. There was also a significant difference between the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score groups in terms of all these parameters except for Tp-e/QTc. In the ROC analyses of Tp-e, Tp-e/QT and Tp-e/QTc to predict the Child C, the AUC values were 0.887; (95% CI: 0.853-0.921), 0.730; (95% CI: 0.680-0.780), and 0.670; (95% CI: 0.614-0.726), respectively. Similarly, AUC values for the MELD score > 20 were 0.877; (95% CI: 0.854-0.900), 0.935; (95% CI: 0.918-0.952), and 0.861; (95% CI: 0.835-0.887); (p < 0.001 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Tp-e, Tp-e/QT, and Tp-e/QTc values were significantly higher in patients with LC. These indexes can be useful for arrhythmia risk stratification and to predict the end-stage of the disease.

Clinical, angiographic and procedural characteristics of longitudinal stent deformation.

Recently, longitudinal stent deformation (LSD) has been reported increasingly. Even though the reported cases included almost all stent designs, most cases were seen in the Element™ stent design (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA). It is considered that stent design, lesion and procedural characteristics play a role in the etiology of LSD. Yet, the effect of LSD on long-term clinical outcomes has not been studied well. Element stents implanted between January 2013 and April 2015 in our hospital were examined retrospectively. Patients were grouped into two according to the presence of LSD, and their clinical, lesion and procedural characteristics were studied. Twenty-four LSD's were detected in 1812 Element stents deployed in 1314 patients (1.83 % of PCI cases and 1.32 % of all Element stents). LMCA lesions (16.7 % vs 1.6 %, p < 0.001), complex lesions (75 % vs 35.1 %, p < 0.001), bifurcation lesions (37.5 % vs 18.3 %, p = 0.017), ostial lesions (33.3 % vs 12.8 %, p = 0.003), using of extra-support guiding catheter (54.2 % vs 22.3 %, p < 0.001) and extra-support guidewire (37.5 % vs 16.2 %, p = 0.005) were found to be more frequent in cases with LSD than in cases without it. In addition, the number of stents, stent inflation pressure and the use of post-dilatation were significantly different between the two groups. Two patients had an adverse event during the follow-up period. LSD is a rarely encountered complication, and is more common in complex lesions such as ostial, bifurcation and LMCA lesions. The use of extra-support guiding catheter, extra-support guidewires and low stent inflation pressure increases the occurrence of LSD. Nevertheless, with increased awareness of LSD and proper treatment, unwanted long-term outcomes can be successfully prevented.