Abstract
Cardiovascular complication often occur during gastroendoscopy. Sudden cardiac arrests, myocardial infarctions and myocardial ischemias have all been reported during gastroscopy. Thus, comparisons were made of electrocardiograms (ECG) and vectorcardiograms (VCG) of elderly patients before, during and after gastroscopy. And blood pressure were monitored during gastroscopy of elderly patient. A standard 12 lead-electrocardiogram was taken on 35 aged patients (more than 60 years of age) and 10 control subjects (less than 59 years of age): (a) before gastroendoscopy, (b) after prifinium bromide intramuscular injection (30mg) and Xylocaine viscous anesthesia, and (c) during gastroendoscopy (GTF-S3 and GTF-B2). Maximum QRS vector, maximum T vector, QRS-T angle and QRS-T retio were recorded on vectorcardiograms in 19 other aged patients: (a) before gastroendoscopy, (b) during endoscopy and (c) after endoscopy. The heart rate increased in all 35 patients and 10 control subjects during gastroendoscopy. Twenty patients (57%) and 4 control subjects (40%) showed increases to more than 100 beats per minute. One aged patient a supraventricular premature beat, and another patient had a ventricular premature beat. Thirteen of these patients (37%) showed ST-T changes. One of them showed an ST-elevation and 12 showed ST-depressions. Maximum QRS vector and maximum T vector decreased in most aged patients. Most patients showed a tendency for an increase in the QRS-Tretio. Nine of 19 patients (47%) showed ischemic changes. The present study confirmed that many ischemic changes occur in elderly patients. Therefore, a precautionary cardiovascular examination is recommended of elderly patients prior to gastroendoscopy.
