FRAGMENTED QRS, AS A SURROGATE MARKER FOR MYOCARDIAL FIBROSIS, IS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGH BLOOD LEAD LEVELS

Lead exposure is a serious environmental problem and associated with serious health prob- lems. Blood lead levels should be measured especially in lead exposed workers. Lead exposure could cause myocardial fibrosis and scar in cardiac tissue. Fragmented QRS (fQRS) is an easy to detect electrocardiography (ECG) finding and a predictor of myocardial scar. In this study we aimed to investigate the association of fQRS and lead exposure One hundred and fourty five occupationally lead exposed male workers with high blood lead levels and 158 male workers with normal blood lead levels are retrospectively evaluated. Hematological, echocardiography and ECG findings were compared. Workers with high blood lead level had significantly higher fQRS than workers with normal blood lead levels (13.8%, 4.4%, respectively, p: 0.004) In regression analysis, blood lead level is associated with fQRS (1.026( 1.011 -1.041), p=0.001). In this study, we found that workers with high blood lead levels has higher fQRS compared with workers with normal blood lead levels. fQRS could be a surrogated marker for suspicion for high blood lead. Further prospective and randomized trials is needed for this relationship.