• N I Oguanobi, B J C Onwubere, S O Ike, B C Anisiuba, E C Ejim, and O G Ibegbulam.
• Department of Medicine, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, Nigeria. nelifyik@yahoo.com
• Afr Health Sci. 2010 Sep 1; 10 (3): 235241235-41.

BackgroundCardiovascular system abnormalities are common causes of morbidity and mortality in sickle cell anaemia.ObjectivesThe study aims at determining the pattern of electrocardiographic changes in adult Nigerian sickle cell anaemia patients.MethodsA descriptive cross sectional study was done on sixty sickle cell anaemia patients seen at the adult sickle cell clinic of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, and sixty age and sex matched normal controls. All the subjects had clinical evaluation as well as electrocardiographic examination.ResultsThe mean heart rate, P-wave duration, P-wave dispersion, PR interval, QRS duration, QRS dispersion, QTc interval and QTc dispersion were significantly higher in the patients than in the control group. Electrocardiographic abnormalities identified by this study were: left ventricular hypertrophy (75%; 1.7%), left atrial enlargement (40%; 0%), biventricular hypertrophy (11%; 0), ST-segment elevation (10%; 0%) and increased P-wave and QTc dispersions. ST segment elevation was found more in patients with moderate and severe anaemia (P= 0.02, Spearman correlation r= 0.342; P= 0.007),ConclusionSickle cell anaemia is associated with significant electrocardiographic abnormalities. Further prospective studies are recommended to evaluate the prognostic significance of the electrocardiographic intervals dispersion on the long term disease outcome in sickle cell anaemia.

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