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Prolonged PR Interval at Birth Predicting the High Occurrence of Fatal Atrioventricular Block in Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

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Abstract

Infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) are at high mortality especially when they are associated with bradyarrhythmias. However, the risk factor of developing high-grade atrioventricular block (HAVB) is still unclear. Seventy-three patients with HLHS in our institutions from 2002 to 2011 were enrolled. The survival rate was assessed by the anatomical types, treatments, occurrence of HAVB, severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR), and restrictive atrial septal defect (ASD) along with electrocardiogram findings at birth. There were 23 (32%) cardiogenic and 7 (10%) non-cardiogenic deaths. The occurrence rate of HAVB but not severe TR or restrictive ASD was higher in 30 deceased patients than in 43 survived patients [7 (23%) vs. 1 (2.3%), p = 0.0038]. The overall mortality rate was higher in patients with HAVB than in those without it (p = 0.0002). Of 7 deceased patients with HAVB, 6 HAVB occurred within 10 days post-surgery, and 3 HAVB led to the early death. The mortality rate of patients with prolonged PR (≥ 0.15 s) but not wide QRS (> 0.08 s) or prolonged QTc (> 0.43 s) at birth was higher than each without it (p = 0.0106). Multivariate analysis indicated that prolonged PR but no other variables was independently associated with the mortality (hazard ratio: 2.948, p = 0.0104). Prolonged PR at birth in HLHS infants predicts the development of fatal HAVB.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Junji Kishimoto (Department of Research and Development of Next Generation Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University) for the contribution of statistical analysis. We show gratitude to Ms. Miho Masunaga and Ms. Ayumi Uchida (Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University) for their helpful support in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1, Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan

    Eiji Morihana, Kenichiro Yamamura, Yuichiro Sugitani, Yasutaka Nakashima & Shouichi Ohga

  2. Division of Neonatal Cardiology, Fukuoka Children’s Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Eiji Morihana, Yuichiro Sugitani & Naoki Fusazaki

  3. Division of Cardiac Surgery, Fukuoka Children’s Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Hideaki Kado & Toshihide Nakano

  4. Division of Neonatology, Fukuoka Children’s Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Yasushi Takahata

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  1. Eiji Morihana
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  2. Kenichiro Yamamura
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  3. Yuichiro Sugitani
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  4. Hideaki Kado
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  5. Yasushi Takahata
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  7. Yasutaka Nakashima
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  8. Naoki Fusazaki
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  9. Shouichi Ohga
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Correspondence to Kenichiro Yamamura.

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All authors have no conflict of interest to report.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Not obtained due to retrospective study design.

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Morihana, E., Yamamura, K., Sugitani, Y. et al. Prolonged PR Interval at Birth Predicting the High Occurrence of Fatal Atrioventricular Block in Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Pediatr Cardiol 39, 749–756 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1815-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1815-x

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