Benign early repolarisation
For the first time benign early repolarisation was discovered in the middle of the 20th century. For many years it was considered by cardiologists only as an ECG-phenomenon, which does not have any influence on the work of the heart. But in recent years, this syndrome has begun to appear increasingly in young people, adolescents and children.
To the world statistics, it is observed in 1-8,2% of the population. Patients with cardiac pathology who are accompanied by disorders of cardiac activity, patients with dysplastic collagenoses and black men under 35 are in the risk group. It is also revealed that this ECG phenomenon in most cases is detected in people who are actively involved in sports.
A number of studies confirmed the fact that the benign early repolarisatio, especially if it is accompanied by episodes of syncope of cardiac origin, increases the risk of sudden coronary death. Also, this phenomenon is often combined with the development of supraventricular arrhythmias, worsening of hemodynamics and in the course of progression leads to heart failure. That is why benign early repolarisation attracted the attention of cardiologists.
While cardiologists do not know the exact cause of benign early repolarisation. It is revealed both in absolutely healthy people, and in individuals with various pathologies.
In many patients with benign early repolarisation, changes in the conduction system leads to various arrhythmias: ventricular fibrillation, ventricular extrasystole, supraventricular tachyarrhythmia and other forms of tachyarrhythmias.
Such arrhythmogenic complications of this ECG phenomenon pose a significant threat to the health and life of the patient and often provoke a fatal outcome. According to world statistics, a large number of deaths, caused by asystole in ventricular fibrillation, occurred precisely against the background of benign early repolarisation.
For a more detailed examination, patients are prescribed: ECG with physical and medicamental load, daily Holter monitoring, ultrasound examination of the heart, urine and blood tests.
After revealing benign early repolarisation, patients are advised to constantly provide the physician with past ECG results, because ECG changes may be mistaken for an episode of coronary insufficiency. To distinguish this phenomenon from myocardial infarction is possible by the persistence of characteristic changes in the electrocardiogram and by the absence of typical irradiative pain behind the sternum.
If benign early repolarisation, which is not accompanied by a pathology of the heart, is identified, the patient is not given medication. Such people are recommended:
- Exclusion of intensive physical exertion.
- Prevention of stressful situations.
- Introduction to the daily menu of foods rich in potassium, magnesium and B vitamins (nuts, raw vegetables and fruits, soy and sea fish).
The identification of the syndrome of benign early repolarisation always requires a comprehensive diagnosis and dispensary observation by a cardiologist. Observance of a number of restrictions in physical activity, correction of the daily menu and the exclusion of psychoemotional loads are recommended to all patients with this ECG phenomenon. If concomitant pathologies and life-threatening arrhythmias are detected, patients are prescribed medication therapy that prevents the development of severe complications. In some cases a surgical treatment may be recommended to the patient.
