الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Cardiotoxicity and cardiovascular health are areas of particular interest due to the vital function of the heart and the vasculature in maintaining the survival of the organism. Poisoning is the leading cause of cardiac arrest in patients under 40 years of age and the second-leading cause of injury-related fatality across all age groups in the US. Poisoning may lead indirectly to hemodynamic changes secondary to the development of acidemia, alkalemia, hypoxia or electrolyte abnormalities. Drug overdose is a major and longstanding source of morbidity and mortality throughout much of the world. There are numerous toxins and drugs that can cause, in overdose, ECG changes, even in patients without history of cardiac pathology. Cardiac dysrhythmia (also known as arrhythmia) is a term for any of a large and heterogenous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The aim of this work was to study ECG changes in cases of poisoning by digoxin, theophylline and antidepressants overdoses that were admitted to MPCC over 2011; sociodemographic factors (age, sex, residence); clinical manifestations (symptoms and signs); and the relation between ECG changes and each of ABG changes, electrolytes changes and severity grades of the studied cases according to PSS. The present study was carried out on cases admitted to MPCC complaining of drug poisoning associated with ECG changes over one year from 1st of January 2011 to 31st of December 2011. The data were collected from a previously designed clinical admission sheet (including the patient’s age, gender, history & clinical assessment data) and from investigations results. from the current study, the following can be concluded: According to sex, it was found that females over numbered males cases. The most affected age group was 20-<40 years, the least affected one was above 40 years. Cases living in rural areas were more frequent than those in urban areas. The relation between sex and different age groups was significant. Males comprised the majority of age group of < 5 years, while females were higher in all age groups, the highest one was 20-<40 years. The suicidal mode of poisoning comprised the highest frequency. Age had a highly significant effect on mode of poisoning (suicidal and accidental), where all cases under 10 years old had taken the overdose accidentally , and all cases ≥ 10 years old had taken the dose intentionally to commit suicide. Regarding the patient complaint, the most studied cases sought medical advice complaining of vomiting (58.4%), followed by dizziness (28.6%) and abdominal pain (23.4%). Upon examining the cases; disturbed consciousness level was found in 9.1% of cases; 14.3% of cases were hypotensive, and more than half of the studied cases suffered from tachycardia. As regard severity grades of the studied cases according to PSS, it was revealed that more than half of the cases were of minor grade, followed by cases of moderate grade. ”None” grade cases of severity score represented 14.3% and the least were severe cases representing 3.9%. |