Impact of electrolyte imbalance on the prognosis of elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia

AIM To investigate the predictive value of electrolyte imbalance on the prognosis of elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia.

METHODS A total of 250 elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia, who were hospitalized in our hospital from February 2021 to March 2024, were selected as research subjects. They were divided into good prognosis and poor prognosis groups based on their prognosis within 3 months after admission. Data were collected on the patients’ age, sex, disease duration, body mass index (BMI), smoking history, type of arrhythmia, number of medications, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), history of hypertension, history of diabetes, intervention or surgery history, coronary heart disease history, myocardial ischemia, New York Heart Association (NYHA) cardiac function classification, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Scr), lipid metabolism, and electrolyte disturbances (Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺). These data were compared using univariate analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent factors affecting mortality in elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed to assess the predictive efficacy of these independent factors on patient mortality.

RESULTS Compared with the group with good prognosis, the group with poor prognosis showed an increase in the proportion of Na⁺ disorder, K⁺ disorder, Ca2⁺ disorder, and Mg2⁺ disorder, all of which were P<0.01; Logistic regression analysis showed that disturbances in Na⁺, K⁺, Ca2⁺, and Mg2⁺were independent prognostic factors for elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia (OR=1.513, 1.442, 1.476, 1.737, all P<0.05); Spearman analysis showed that disturbances in Na⁺, K⁺, Ca2⁺, Mg2⁺ were moderately positively correlated with the prognosis of elderly patients with arrhythmia (r=0.465, 0.353, 0.494, 0.316, all P<0.05); ROC curve analysis showed that Na⁺and K⁺disturbances have a certain predictive effect on the prognosis of elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia (AUC=0.818, 0.787, both P<0.01).

CONCLUSION Electrolyte disturbances are closely associated with the prognosis of elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia. Disturbances in Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ metabolism are independent risk factors for poor prognosis in these patients. Notably, disturbances in Na⁺ and K⁺ levels exhibit relatively high predictive value for poor prognosis in elderly patients with ventricular arrhythmia.