William Atkins
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 22:05
Science -
Health
Page 3 of 4
Such a reaction causes electrical changes in the brain, which shows up on the ECG.
Over the next one-plus year, data involving the ICD was used to determine the incidence of ICD-terminated ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation--that is, the implanted defibrillator stopped the irregular heartbeat.
They found that some patients with ICD-terminated arrhythmias had much higher TWA when induced by anger.
Specifically, they found that the patients with the highest amount of induced anger were
“more likely to experience arrhythmias” within one year than those patients with the lowest amount of induced anger.
Highest induced anger people had a 33% chance of experiencing heart irregularities within the one-year period, while the lowest induced anger people only had a 4% chance of experiencing arrhythmias.
During the three-year extended follow-up period, the percentages were 40% and 9%, respectively.
Over the three-year period, 16% of the patients experienced heart irregularities (arrhythmias) that caused their implanted defibrillators to turn on and shock their system back to normal. And, those patients were found to have higher T-wave alternans (more induced-anger) than those who had lower TWA (less induced-anger).
Page four concludes with one more conclusion from the research team.
