Abstract
The electrocardiogram (ECG) provides important information regarding the heart rate and heart rhythm in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). Up to one third of deaths in AN are due to cardiac causes, with a subset of those due to arrhythmia. The ECG is an inexpensive, minimally invasive, and widely accessible screening tool to assess the heart’s electrical activity. Bradycardia occurs widely in AN, with severity correlating to degree of malnutrition and/or low BMI, attributed to impaired autonomic regulation. Changes in the QT interval and other repolarization parameters are less ubiquitous in patients with AN, and their prognostic and therapeutic implications are less clear. However, a growing field of research supports serial ECG monitoring, especially in acutely unwell patients with AN, for both risk assessment and to monitor regression to normal with treatment.
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Abbreviations
- AN:
-
Anorexia nervosa
- BN:
-
Bulimia nervosa
- BPM:
-
Beats per minute
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- HRV:
-
Heart rate variability
- QTc:
-
Corrected QT interval
- SSRI:
-
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
- SUD:
-
Sudden unexpected death
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Janzen, M., Raudzus, J., Krahn, A. (2023). The Electrocardiogram in Anorexia Nervosa. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Eating Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16691-4_37
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