Late potentials in the signal-averaged electrocardiogram in schizophrenia patients maintained on antipsychotic agents. A preliminary naturalistic study

In the present, preliminary, naturalistic study, cardiac ventricular late potentials (LPs), were measured in 33 physically healthy schizophrenia patients (13 - females and 26 - males, age - 45.5 ± 8.8 years) maintained on typical and atypical antipsychotic agents. These LPs represent delayed ventricular activation that might predispose to fatal ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in cardiac patients. Sixteen of the 33 patients (∼ 48%) were found to be positive for LPs (compared to 3.7-6% in the general population). No association was found with any of the following: drug type, anti-cholinergic burden, daily dose of antipsychotic agents, age, gender, disease duration, QT_c interval and QT dispersion. Further large-scale longitudinal prospective studies are warranted to substantiate our findings and to clarify their impact on the excess cardiac morbidity and mortality in schizophrenia patients.