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Wolff‐Parkinson‐White Syndrome and Atrioventricular Nodal Re‐Entry Tachycardia in a Swedish Population: Consequences on Health‐Related Quality of Life
Author(s) -
WALFRIDSSON ULLA,
STRÖMBERG ANNA,
JANZON MAGNUS,
WALFRIDSSON HÅKAN
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.2009.02476.x
Subject(s) - medicine , quality of life (healthcare) , tachycardia , supraventricular tachycardia , cardiology , population , ablation , radiofrequency ablation , physical therapy , nursing , environmental health
Background: Living with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia affects a patient's whole life situation, but few studies have addressed health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) aspects in these patients. The aim was therefore to describe HRQOL in patients with atrioventricular nodal re‐entry tachycardia (AVNRT) or Wolff‐Parkinson‐White (WPW) syndrome, referred for radiofrequency ablation (RF‐ablation), compared to age‐ and gender‐matched Swedish reference groups.Methods: HRQOL was assessed with SF‐36 and EuroQol (EQ‐5D and EQ‐VAS) and the patients were asked disease‐specific questions.Results: The 97 patients with AVNRT [53 ± 16 years of age/65 women] and 79 patients with WPW [42 ± 15 years of age/26 women] exhibited significantly lower HRQOL scores in SF‐36 in the same seven of the eight scales: Physical functioning (PF), role‐physical (RP), social functioning (SF), role‐emotional (RE), general health (GH), vitality (VT), and mental health (MH) while there was no difference in bodily pain (BP) compared to their respective age‐ and gender matched Swedish reference group. HRQOL scores were lower for patients with AVNRT compared to WPW in the areas of PF (P < 0.001), BP (P < 0.05), and GH (P < 0.01) in SF‐36, and the same was found in EQ‐VAS (64.8 vs. 71.2, P < 0.05). Occurrence of episodes of tachycardia more often than once a month compared to less frequently than once a month was associated with significantly lower HRQOL in all eight scales in SF‐36 (GH, RE, MH: P < 0.01 and PF, RP, BP, VT, SF: P < 0.001) and EQ‐5D index (P < 0.001) and EQ‐VAS (P < 0.05) Arrhythmia duration longer than one hour compared to patients with shorter duration of the tachycardia‐affected GH in SF‐36 negatively (P < 0.05). Patients who experienced symptoms not only during activity but also at rest scored lower in SF‐36 GH (P < 0.01) and SF (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Measuring HRQOL in patients with WPW or AVNRT is an important way to evaluate and describe these patients’ life situation. These conditions were found to have a pronounced negative impact on HRQOL. The frequency of arrhythmia occurrence is one important factor to consider when setting priorities for treatment with RF‐ablation.