Does Celiac Disease effect electrocardiographic markers of arrhythmic events in children?

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac abnormalities associated with celiac disease (CD) have been reported. However, changes in electrocardiographic (ECG) parameters in children with CD have not been previously evaluated in the literature. In this study, we aimed to evaluate these parameters that may be determinative in the development of atrial and ventricular arrhythmia with CD.
METHODS: Patients diagnosed as CD in the gastroenterology clinic were included in the study. ECG measurements of QT, Tp-e and P intervals were performed. TheTp-e/QT ratio was calculated from these measurements. Echocardiographic and ECG parameters of patients and controls were compared. Patients with elevated anti-tissue transglutaminase Ig A (IgA-tTG) levels were considered positive serology. Patients were divided in three group and compared with each other according to ECG parameters; as new diagnosis, patients with seropositive and patients with seronegative under gluten free diet at least 6 months.
RESULTS: Fifty-two patients with CD and 59 healthy volunteers were included. P-wave dispersion, QTd, corrected QT dispersion (QTcd), Tp-e dispersion and TP-e/QT ratio were higher in children with CD compared to controls. We did not find any correlation between IgA-tTG levels and P-wave, QT andTp-e dispersions. There were not any difference between three groups of CD patients for ECG and echocardiographic parameters.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: CD is associated with changes in some ECG parameters, which areconsidered as predict atrial and ventricular arrhythmias in special populations. Therefore, children with CD should be evaluated for these parameters and more electrophysiological studies are needed to demonstrate clinical and prognostic implications of these parameters for CD.