Ventricular repolarization in overweight and normal weight healthy young men.

OBJECTIVE

The effects of body mass index (BMI) on ventricular repolarization in young men have not been studied in detail. The QT and JT intervals are measured to estimate the duration of the ventricular repolarization. As new repolarization parameters, the time intervals between the J point to the apex of the T wave (JTa), the apex and the end of T wave (TaTe) may be associated with arrhythmogenesis in clinical conditions. The aim of this study was to compare ventricular repolarization parameters in overweight and normal weight healthy young men.

METHODS

Thirty-six overweight men (BMI--26.3+/-1.5 kg/m2, mean age--20.6+/-1.5 years) and 149 men within normal limits (BMI--21.9+/-1.5 kg/m2, mean age--20.4+/-1.4 yrs) were included in this cross-sectional controlled study. The body mass index of 25 to 29.9 kg/m2 was defined as overweight and scores of 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 were accepted as normal. Ventricular repolarization parameters including QT, JT, JTa, TaTe, RR intervals duration and heart rate-corrected values of QT (QTc), JT (JTc), JTa (JTac), and TaTe (TaTec) intervals duration were obtained from lead V2 and considered to be representative of the ventricular repolarization process.

RESULTS

We found similar ventricular repolarization parameters (QT, JT, JTa, TaTe, RR, QTc, JTc, JTac, and TaTec) in overweight and normal groups. Uncorrected and corrected ventricular repolarization parameters were not correlated with BMI.

CONCLUSION

Ventricular repolarization features in young men who are overweight in terms of BMI seem to show no significant difference when compared to normal weight men.