A Comparative study on ECG changes among normal and otherwise healthy congenitally deaf children

Abstract

Background: Congenital deafness is usually seen to be associated with number of heart diseases. Screening congenitally deaf children with ECG can give us an insight on unidentified congenitally associated heart disease. Aim and objective: To study the ECG changes in congenitally deaf children and compare with normal children of the same age group. Materials and methods: We conducted a community based cross sectional analytical study with a sample size of 120 subjects out of which 60 were children from deaf school as cases and 60 were children from normal school with normal hearing as controls. Both the groups had 30 males and 30 females. 12 lead ECG was taken, studied and compared among the two groups. Results: Deaf children showed significant ECG changes like long QTc (16.7%), left axis deviation (3.3%), right axis deviation (1.6%), clockwise rotation (8.33%), anticlockwise rotation (5%), QRS complex abnormalities (45%), T wave inversions (45%). Conclusion: Our study was able to pick up numerous changes in ECG of deaf children. Yet the findings are inconclusive. Further genetic and thorough cardiac evaluation is necessary to comprehensively establish the relation between co-occurrence of ECG changes and congenital sensorineural deafness.