Instant steroid levels in atriyal fibrillation: Case-control study

Introduction and PurposeCortisole is a hormon made of steroid, playing active role for sentesis of cathecolamineswhile in stress conditions. Cathecolamines can result in arrithmia by effecting the conductionsistem of the heart. A study in the literature revealed that atriyal fibrillation (AF) in thepatients treated with corticosteroids after the cardiovascular surgery is less evident ascompared to the control group. Besides, in a group of four patients administered pulse steroidtreatment exhibited AF.The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is any difference of the serumcortisol levels in patients with AF as compared to the control group.Material and MethodThis one-on-one case-control study made in the emergency room of the universityhospital included 138 cases (69 patients, 69 control). The serum free-cortisol levels of thesecases at the age of 18 or above that exhibited AF are compared with the control group.ResultsThe mean age of 138 cases included in this study were 71±12, 82 of them were women(%59.4)The mean blood steroid levels were 25.1±20.1 mg/dL in group with AF and 21.4±14.0mg/dL in the control group (p: 0,214). No difference was found between the groups when wedefined steroid levels as normal and abnormal based on diurnal rhythm (p: 0.609).Although mean blood steroid levels were 31.4±22.5 mg/dL in the group with paroxismalAF and 20.7±17.3 mg/dL in the group with chronic AF (p: 0.040), there was no significantstatistical differences based on diurnal rhythm (p: 0.436).ConclusionThis study showed that serum cortisol level anomalies by diurnal rithym are not effecton the ethiology and permanency of AF, but serum cortisol levels are high at the paroxismalAF cases. Therefore, we recommend to conduct further studies on this issue with morepatients can be usefull.Keywords: atriyal fibrillation, cortisol, emergency department