Electrocardiogram analysis in adult patients with sickle cell disease.

This study is an analysis of the electrocardiograms (ECGs) of 87 adult patients taken during hospital admission for sickle cell disease (homozygous S). The age range was 18 to 55 years: 38 were men and 49 were women. Seventy-two percent of all patients had abnormal ECGs. Nonspecific ST-T (NS-ST-T) wave abnormalities (53 percent) and QT interval prolongation (12 percent) were frequent. Seventy-five percent of the normal ECGs occurred in women (P < .05); and 74 percent of those with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) were men (P < .05). Fifteen of 21 (71 percent) patients with arrhythmias had NS-ST-T abnormalities. Systemic hypertension and ECG evidence for right-sided heart disease were rare, as was the incidence of LVH by ECG.