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- Title
Cardiac effects of repeated focal seizures in rats induced by intrahippocampal tetanus toxin: Bradyarrhythmias, tachycardias, and prolonged interictal QT interval.
- Authors
Jefferys, John G. R.; Ashby‐Lumsden, Alexander; Lovick, Thelma A.
- Abstract
Objective: To determine electrical changes in the heart in a chronic, nonstatus model of epilepsy. Methods: Electrocorticography (ECoG) and electrocardiography (ECG) of nine animals (five made epileptic by intrahippocampal injection of tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) and four controls), are monitored continuously by radiotelemetry for up to 7 weeks. Results: Epileptic animals develop a median of 168 seizures, with postictal tachycardias reaching a mean of 487 beats/min and lasting a mean of 661 seconds. Ictal changes in heart rate include tachycardia and in the case of convulsive seizures, bradyarrhythmias resembling Mobitz type 1 second‐degree atrioventricular block; notably the P‐R interval increased before block. Postictally, the amplitude of T wave increases. Interictally, QT dependence on RR is modest and conventional QT corrections prove ineffective. Interictal QT intervals, measured at a heart rate of 400 bpm, increased from 65 to 75 ms, an increase dependent on seizure incidence over the preceding 10‐14 days. Significance: Repeated seizures induce a sustained tachycardia and increase in QT interval of the ECG and evoke arrhythmias including periods of atrioventricular block during Racine type 4 and 5 seizures. These changes in cardiac function may predispose to development in fatal arrhythmias and sudden death in humans with epilepsy.
- Subjects
RACINE (Wis.); TETANUS toxin; SEIZURES (Medicine); HEART beat; ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY; SUDDEN death; PSYCHOGENIC nonepileptic seizures
- Publication
Epilepsia (Series 4), 2020, Vol 61, Issue 4, p798
- ISSN
0013-9580
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/epi.16479