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The Effect of General Anesthesia on the Risk for Arrhythmia

NCT01174251 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 125

Last updated 2013-10-08

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, known as Torsades de Pointes (TdP), is a specific form of ventricular arrhythmia with a characteristic twist of the QRS complex around the isoelectric baseline. TdP can degenerate into ventricular defibrillation followed by sudden cardiac death. A predictor for the development of TdP is the length of the QT interval measured on an EKG recording. The QT interval is known to be prolonged by many medications used in a perioperative setting as well as by other conditions such as hypothermia and electrolyte imbalance. General anesthesia exposes most of the investigators patients to a combination of several of those medications and conditions and therefore might increase the risk for the development of QT prolongation. Moreover, patient related risk factors are well known and aggravate the individual risk for potential life threatening TdP events when exposed to QT prolonging medications perioperatively.

Previous research suggests that more than 20% of the patients might develop QT prolongations perioperatively and are consequently on an increased risk for TdP; yet, no study has systematically investigated the magnitude of the problem and associated risk factors.

The proposed pilot study is designed as a prospective observational cohort study to investigate the QT interval before, during and after general anesthesia. It aims to determine the incidence of perioperative QT prolongations. A customary long term EKG recording device will be connected to a random sample of patients undergoing general anesthesia. Using these continuous EKG tracings, the lengths of the QT interval will be analyzed during the perioperative period.

Conditions

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Kerstin Kolodzie, M.D., PhD · Dept. of Anesthesia & Perioperative Care; University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2010-12-31
Primary Completion
2013-04-30
Completion
2013-04-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01174251 on ClinicalTrials.gov