QT Dispersion in Epileptic Children and Effect of Antiepileptic Drugs on QT Dispersion

Purpose: Sudden death in epileptic patients may due to epilepsia or drug induced arrhythmia. The aim of this study is to identify changes of QT dispersion, as a predictive marker for arrhythmias, in children treated with antiepileptic drugs. Material and Methods: Ninety children treated with antiepileptic drugs and 30 healthy children as controls were involved in the study. Standard 12-lead surface electrocardiograms (ECG) of the study groups were evaluated before antiepileptic drug therapy and after 3 months. ECG of the control group was also reviewed at the beginning of the study and after 3 months. QT, JT and RR intervals were measured in both groups. The corrected QT (QTc) and JT (JTc) intervals were determined and QTc and JTc dispersions were measured. Results: QTc and JTc dispersion were found to be 85.8+/-16.5 ms and 79.8+/-15.6 ms respectively in patients group before the therapy and 43.3+/-8.2 ms and 40.8+/-5.6 ms in control group at the beginning (p<0.05). Even QTc dispersion were found to be significantly decreased after 3 months of therapy (80.5+/-12.9 ms), it was still significantly higher than the QTc dispersion in control group after 3 months. Conclusion: Determination of QTcd and JTcd values may be useful to predict the risk of sudden death in epileptic patients.