Glimpse into the electrocardiographic changes in patients of anemia at a younger age: A hospital-based observational study

Abstract

Introduction: Anemia is a major health problem in developing countries and even the developed countries are also not spared from its effect. The heart is one of the main organs affected by ill effects of anemia. Due to decreased O2 carrying capacity in anemia, myocardium suffers from supply-demand mismatch, leading to myocardial ischemia or infarction. In view of cardiac involvement in anemia, studies have been done to evaluate electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in anemia. The ECG changes commonly seen are sinus tachycardia, ST segment depression, T wave inversion, and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), but there are various discrepancies in the findings of different studies. It is observed that ECG changes are also correlated to the severity of anemia.
Aims and Objective: To study the ECG of the patients presenting with anemia and to correlate same with severity of anemia.
Materials and Methods: This hospital-based prospective observational study conducted on 80 patients at the Department of Medicine, Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Silchar, after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Resting ECG and other routine investigations were done in all cases.
Results: In patients with severe anemia, 89.4% of patients had tachycardia, 36.8% had ST segment depression, 31.6% had T wave inversion, and 15.7% had LVH. In patients with moderate anemia, 86.9% of patients had tachycardia, 43.5% had ST segment depression, 17.4% had t wave inversion, and 34.8% had LVH. In patients with mild anemia, 26.3% of patients had tachycardia, none had ST segment depression or t wave inversion, whereas 7.9% of patients presented with LVH.