ABNORMAL QT DISPERSION IN BEHCETS-DISEASE

Behcet's disease, which was originally described by Hulusi Behcet in 1 937, is a generalized chronic inflammatory disease characterized by re current oral and genital ulcerations, ocular and dermal manifestations . Cardiac manifestations include pericarditis, myocarditis, conduction system disturbances, coronary arteritis, mitral valve insufficiency, dilated cardiomyopathy, ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac dea th. There is little knowledge about the mechanism of ventricular arrhy thmias in Behcet's disease. In this study, we examined the value of di spersion of ventricular repolarization as a diagnostic tool to assess the risk for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in Behce t's disease. We examined 38 patients (age:34+/-4.6 years, 20F, 18M) wi th Behcet's disease and 30 age-matched healthy subjects were selected to serve as the control group. Repolarization dispersion parameters we re calculated as the difference between maximal and minimal values of QT, QT(c), JT and JTC from 12-lead ECG recordings at 25 or 50 mm/s. We found QT(d), QT(c-d), JT(d) and JT(c-d) intervals of 60.65 +/- 16.1, 78.45 +/- 11.4, 71.51 +/- 18.3 and 92.33 +/- 15.4 ms in Behcet's disea se patients, these values in control subjects were 40.1 +/- 9.7, 56.36 +/- 7.5, 41.66 +/- 4.3 and 53.92 +/- 9.2 ms respectively (p<0.001). S triking increases in QT and JT dispersion indicating regional inhomoge neity of ventricular repolarization were noted in patients with Behcet 's disease. This new finding suggests a possible explanation for the p resence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with Behcet's disease. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.