Study of Electrocardiographic and 2d Echocardiographic Changes & Its Correlation with Fibroscan in Chronic Alcoholics

Abstract

Objective: Alcohol is a widely used psychoactive substance with dependence producing properties. Excess alcohol consumption over a long period can be associated with variety of cardiovascular disorders. Thus, the study was undertaken to evaluate the Electrocardiographic and Echocardiographic abnormalities in chronic alcoholics and also to evaluate UGI Endoscopy and Fibro scan findings in asymptomatic alcoholic patients. Materials and Methods :50 chronic alcoholics and 50 age and sex matched controls attending the outpatient in N.S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital, Jabalpur were selected for the study. It was a prospective case-control study designed in age group 20-60 years, having history of chronic alcoholism. Patients with known diabetic, hypertension and cardiovascular disorders were excluded from the study.
Results: The Prevalence of Cardiovascular disorders in patients of chronic alcoholism was 42% in our study. Most common ECG changes are Sinus Tachycardia (12%) followed by Non-specific ST-T wave changes (10%). Most common 2D Echo changes are increased posterior wall thickness (16%) followed by increased interventricular thickness (10%) and diastolic dysfunction (10%). The prevalence of cardiovascular abnormalities is found to be increased with increased duration of alcohol consumption. The most common UGI endoscopy findings in chronic alcoholics were Antral Gastritis (6%), Duodenitis (6%) and Moderate PHG (4%). The Mean LSM of chronic alcoholics in Fibro scan is ≤5.8.
Conclusions:This study concludes that cardiovascular changes occur in chronic alcoholics prior to development of symptomatic cardiac disorders; which are early changes and are reversible and can be easily detected with noninvasive investigations like ECG and 2D Echo.