HYPOALBUMINEMIA;

Objective: To determine the frequency of low voltage ECG in hypoalbuminemic patients. Study Design: Descriptive crosssectionalstudy. Setting: Nishtar Hospital Multan. Duration of study: April 2010 to September 2010. Sampling technique: Non-probabilitypurposive sampling. Methodology: One hundred and fifty patients of hypoalbuminemia were registered after taking informed consent forparticipation. Serum albumin was done in all the cases. All the patients under went ECG. QRS wave amplitude was measured from standard 12leads ECG’s using clippers and magnifying glass within 24 hours of test for serum albumin. All information were entered in a specially designedproforma. Data entered and analyzed through SPSS-11. Results: One hundred and fifty patients of hypoalbuminemia were included in thestudy. The age range was 18-90 years with mean of 47.28± 21.80 years. There were 87 male and 63 female patients. Sixty eight (45.33%)patients with hypoalbuminemia developed low voltage ECG. Among them 37 (54.41%) were male and 31 (45.58%) female. Liver dysfunction,renal dysfunction, malnutrition and pre-eclampsia were common causes of hypoalbuminemia and present in 47 (31.33%) ,35(23.33%),15(10.00%) and 7(4.66%) of patients respectively. Conclusions: Low voltage ECG can be seen in hypoalbuminemia. So while interpretinglow voltage ECG, the physician should keep in mind the hypoalbuminemia as one of the causes and should detect it first rather thanundertaking sophisticated and unnecessary expensive investigations to rule out cardiac pathology.