Factors Determining Occurrence of Arrhythmias in Patients Post-closure of Atrial Septal Defects

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the risk factors for the occurrence of arrhythmias after either transcatheter or surgical closure of atrial septal defect. METHODS: This prospective study included 150 patients admitted for transcatheter or surgical closure of atrial septal defect. Transthoracic echocardiography together with a twelve-leads ECG were done during 1 and 3 months follow up. The paired T, chi-square and Logistic regression tests were used to detect any association between any arrhythmias and factors that may affect its occurrence. RESULTS: One-hundred and twenty-three patients had percutaneous device closure while the remaining 27 patients had surgical closure. The youngest and oldest of the studied patients being 3 & 50 years old respectively with female (108) over male (42) predominance in incidence. After closure, 8 patients at one month and another 3 patients at three months follow up out of the total 150 patients had supraventricular arrhythmias in the form of frequent premature atrial contractions (6 patients), atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia (2 patients), and paroxysmal Atrial fibrillation (3 patients). No conduction abnormalities nor ventricular arrhythmias occurred. Multivariate analysis showed that age, P wave dispersion, systolic myocardial velocity of right ventricle, and systolic pulmonary artery pressure were independently associated with the occurrence of atrial arrhythmia after atrial septal defect repair. CONCLUSION: Age, P wave dispersion, Systolic pulmonary artery pressure, and systolic myocardial velocity of the right ventricle are independent risk factors to develop arrythmias in patients after atrial septal defect closure.