Comparison of the Incidence of Fragmented QRS Complex on Electrocardiogram in Patients with Connective Tissue Disorders and Healthy Individuals

Objective: To compare the incidence of fragmented QRS complex in electrocardiograms in patients withconnective tissue disorders compared to healthy individuals.Study Design: Cross-sectional comparative study.Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Medicine, Combined MilitaryHospital (CMH), Multan, Pakistan from February 2024 to July 2024.Methods: A total of 30 patients aged≥ 18 years and diagnosed with various connective tissue disorders wererecruited in the study group (named CTD group). Another 30 individuals aged≥ 18 years or older without anyknown connective tissue disorders were added to the Control group. A standard 12-lead electrocardiogram wasperformed for each participant at rest, and the incidences of fragmented QRS complexes were recorded. Theprimary outcome of the study was to compare the incidence of fragmented QRS complex in patients withconnective tissue disorders compared to healthy individuals by applying the Chi-square test. Results in the CTDgroup were also stratified by using independent t-tests and a Chi-square test for continuous and categoricalvariables, respectively. A P<0.05 is considered significant in all the comparisons.Results: The mean age of study participants was 41.88±8.7. Female patients comprised 70% of the studypopulation, and males comprised 30%. The results of the primary outcomes of the study showed that asignificantly higher number of patients had a fragmented QRS complex in the CTD group compared to theControl group (56.66% vs 6.66%, respectively, P=˂0.0001). The stratification of the incidences with the clinicalvariables in the CTD group established its significant association with age (P=0.024) and duration of the disease(P=0.048).Conclusion: A significantly higher incidence of fragmented QRS complexes is present in patients withconnective tissue disorders compared to the normal population. How to cite this: Wajid H, Barki WH, Batool S, Hashmi Z, Shafiq A, Pirzada HZ. Comparison of the Incidence of Fragmented QRS Complex on Electrocardiogram in Patients with Connective Tissue Disorders and Healthy Individuals. Life and Science. 2025; 6(2): 248-254. doi: http://doi.org/10.37185/LnS.1.1.796