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. 2019 Jun 25;73(24):3118-3131.
doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2019.03.519.

Effects of Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium Concentrations on Ventricular Repolarization in Unselected Individuals

Raymond Noordam  1 William J Young  2 Reem Salman  3 Jørgen K Kanters  4 Marten E van den Berg  5 Diana van Heemst  6 Henry J Lin  7 Sandhi Maria Barreto  8 Mary L Biggs  9 Ginevra Biino  10 Eulalia Catamo  11 Maria Pina Concas  11 Jun Ding  12 Daniel S Evans  13 Luisa Foco  14 Niels Grarup  15 Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen  16 Massimo Mangino  17 Hao Mei  18 Peter J van der Most  19 Martina Müller-Nurasyid  20 Christopher P Nelson  21 Yong Qian  12 Linda Repetto  22 M Abdullah Said  23 Nabi Shah  24 Katharina Schramm  25 Pedro G Vidigal  26 Stefan Weiss  27 Jie Yao  28 Nuno R Zilhao  29 Jennifer A Brody  30 Peter S Braund  21 Marco Brumat  31 Eric Campana  31 Paraskevi Christofidou  32 Mark J Caulfield  33 Alessandro De Grandi  14 Anna F Dominiczak  34 Alex S F Doney  35 Gudny Eiriksdottir  29 Christina Ellervik  36 Luana Giatti  8 Martin Gögele  14 Claus Graff  37 Xiuqing Guo  38 Pim van der Harst  23 Peter K Joshi  22 Mika Kähönen  39 Bryan Kestenbaum  40 Maria F Lima-Costa  41 Allan Linneberg  42 Arie C Maan  43 Thomas Meitinger  44 Sandosh Padmanabhan  45 Cristian Pattaro  14 Annette Peters  46 Astrid Petersmann  47 Peter Sever  48 Mortiz F Sinner  49 Xia Shen  50 Alice Stanton  51 Konstantin Strauch  52 Elsayed Z Soliman  53 Kirill V Tarasov  54 Kent D Taylor  38 Chris H L Thio  19 André G Uitterlinden  55 Simona Vaccargiu  56 Melanie Waldenberger  57 Antonietta Robino  11 Adolfo Correa  58 Francesco Cucca  59 Steven R Cummings  13 Marcus Dörr  60 Giorgia Girotto  61 Vilmundur Gudnason  62 Torben Hansen  15 Susan R Heckbert  63 Christian R Juhl  64 Stefan Kääb  49 Terho Lehtimäki  16 Yongmei Liu  65 Paulo A Lotufo  66 Colin N A Palmer  35 Mario Pirastu  56 Peter P Pramstaller  67 Antonio Luiz P Ribeiro  68 Jerome I Rotter  38 Nilesh J Samani  21 Harold Snieder  19 Tim D Spector  32 Bruno H Stricker  5 Niek Verweij  23 James F Wilson  69 James G Wilson  70 J Wouter Jukema  43 Andrew Tinker  33 Christopher H Newton-Cheh  71 Nona Sotoodehnia  72 Dennis O Mook-Kanamori  73 Patricia B Munroe  74 Helen R Warren  33
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Free article

Effects of Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium Concentrations on Ventricular Repolarization in Unselected Individuals

Raymond Noordam et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: Subclinical changes on the electrocardiogram are risk factors for cardiovascular mortality. Recognition and knowledge of electrolyte associations in cardiac electrophysiology are based on only in vitro models and observations in patients with severe medical conditions.

Objectives: This study sought to investigate associations between serum electrolyte concentrations and changes in cardiac electrophysiology in the general population.

Methods: Summary results collected from 153,014 individuals (54.4% women; mean age 55.1 ± 12.1 years) from 33 studies (of 5 ancestries) were meta-analyzed. Linear regression analyses examining associations between electrolyte concentrations (mmol/l of calcium, potassium, sodium, and magnesium), and electrocardiographic intervals (RR, QT, QRS, JT, and PR intervals) were performed. The study adjusted for potential confounders and also stratified by ancestry, sex, and use of antihypertensive drugs.

Results: Lower calcium was associated with longer QT intervals (-11.5 ms; 99.75% confidence interval [CI]: -13.7 to -9.3) and JT duration, with sex-specific effects. In contrast, higher magnesium was associated with longer QT intervals (7.2 ms; 99.75% CI: 1.3 to 13.1) and JT. Lower potassium was associated with longer QT intervals (-2.8 ms; 99.75% CI: -3.5 to -2.0), JT, QRS, and PR durations, but all potassium associations were driven by use of antihypertensive drugs. No physiologically relevant associations were observed for sodium or RR intervals.

Conclusions: The study identified physiologically relevant associations between electrolytes and electrocardiographic intervals in a large-scale analysis combining cohorts from different settings. The results provide insights for further cardiac electrophysiology research and could potentially influence clinical practice, especially the association between calcium and QT duration, by which calcium levels at the bottom 2% of the population distribution led to clinically relevant QT prolongation by >5 ms.

Keywords: cohort studies; electrocardiographic intervals; electrolytes; epidemiology; meta-analysis.

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