MiscellaneousElectrocardiographic Abnormalities in Patients With Novel H1N1 Influenza Virus Infection
Section snippets
Methods
All patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Department of the General Hospital “G. Hatzikosta” of Ioannina, Greece, with the diagnosis of novel H1N1 infection were included in this study. Diagnosis was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction on nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swabs. Electrocardiography was performed in all patients on presentation to the emergency department and subsequently daily. Typical laboratory screening was performed in all patients admitted. All patients
Results
Fifty patients were admitted to the Internal Medicine Department with definite diagnoses of novel H1N1 influenza infection. Of these, 14 patients exhibited ECG abnormalities on admission. The epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the 14 patients with ECG abnormalities and the 36 patients with persistently normal ECG findings are listed in Table 1. The ECG abnormalities encountered are listed in Table 2.
T-wave inversions and ST-segment depression were the prominent findings.
Discussion
In the present study, ECG abnormalities were often encountered in hospitalized patients with novel H1N1 influenza, with the percentage reaching 28%. It should be noted, however, that these patients exhibited disease of relatively moderate severity necessitating hospitalization; thus, this percentage may overestimate the actual percentage of such manifestations in the overall population infected with the novel H1N1 influenza virus. Yet an earlier study of patients with influenza2 treated at home
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