Can the LONG-term risk of dysrythmia be predicted in patients with postoperative tetratology of fallot?

Purpose: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) patients have an increased rate of cardiovascular incidents, even with successful repair. It is essential to predict the supraventicular and ventricular arrythmia among these patients. In this study, it is aimed to compare the electrocardiographic parameters of the patients who underwent TOF surgery in our clinic proven to be arrhythmia risk determinants in previous studies and the electrocardiographic parameters of the healthy control group. Materials and methods: This study analyzes arrhythmias and risk factors that are likely to develop in patients aged 5 years and older who have been followed up with postoperative TOF retrospectively in the Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Istanbul University, Faculty of Medicine. 100 patients' files which are diagnosed in our unit between 21.03.1997 and 21.08.2015 have been scanned. Among these patients, it is acknowledged that 12 of the patients died when called for a control. 8 patients with combordity and 16 patients who do not have files in the archives and patient record database have been excluded. Remaining 64 patients are included in this study. 80 patients of the same age group without any known disease and whose electrocardiograms were taken in routine pediatric outpatient clinic controls, were selected as the control group. All data has been evaluated with Statistical software package (IBM SPSS 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) program. A p-value <0.05 is considered as significant. Results: The 64 patients with postoperative TOF, 34 (53%) males with an average of 14 years old (10-17) are included in the study and analyzed. 80 patients have been included in the healthy group. There was no significant difference observed between the patient group and healthy group in terms of demographic parameters such as age, gender and weight-height percentiles. Conclusion: In this study, it has been observed that an increased risk of ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmia in the postoperative TOF group through electrocardiographic parameters. These patients should be followed closely in terms of arrythmia in long term controls. Key Words: Tetralogy of Fallot, arrythmia, P-wave dispersion, QT dispersion, Fragmented QRS, children