Assessment of increased risk of arrhythmia in advanced age pregnancies

Background and Objective: Cardiovascular deaths usually occur in older pregnancies and arrhythmia is the third most common cause. Our study aimed to determine whether the risk of arrhythmia increases in pregnancy with advanced age.

Methods: In total, 280 pregnant women, of whom 98 were of advanced age and 182 were under 35 years of age were included in the study. The risk of arrhythmia was evaluated by calculating the electrocardiographic P-wave duration, QT interval, T peak-to-end interval, and the Tp-e/QT ratio.

Results: Although there were no differences in the Tp-e interval and Tp-e/QTc ratio between the groups, the maximum QTc, minimum QTc, and QTc dispersion values were significantly higher in advanced-age pregnancies compared to the control group. In addition, the P dispersion was greater in advanced-age pregnancies. In correlation analysis, the increased dispersion of QTc and P were positively correlated with maternal age. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that QTc dispersion was independently associated with maternal age.

Conclusion: Repolarization parameters increase in advanced-age pregnancies even though they remain in the normal range, which should lead to an investigation of whether this is a pathological condition.