RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: The present study was undertaken to investigate the prognostic value of the frontal QRS-T angle associated with adverse cardiac outcomes in patients with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in early stages in the emergency department. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data of 212 patients with CO poisoning who were admitted to the ED between January 2010 and May 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The frontal QRS-T angle was obtained from the automatic reports of the EKG device. RESULTS: Compared to patients without myocardial damage, among patients with myocardial damage, statistically high creatinine, creatine kinase MB, cardiac troponin I, and frontal QRS-T angle values were found (p < 0.001 for all parameters), while the saturation of arterial blood pH and arterial oxygen values were found to be lower (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). The frontal QRS-T angle values were correlated with creatine kinase, creatine kinase-MB, cardiac troponin I, and oxygen saturation (SpO2) in arterial blood (r = 0. 232, p = 0.001; r = 0. 253, p = < 0.001; r = 0. 389, p = < 0.001; r = -0. 198, p = 0.004, respectively). The optimum cut-off value of the frontal QRS-T angle was found to be 44.5 (area under the curve: 0.901, 95% confidence interval: 0.814-0.988, sensitivity: 87%, specificity: 84%). CONCLUSIONS: The frontal QRS-T angle, a simple and inexpensive parameter that can be easily obtained from 12-lead surface electrocardiography, can be used as an early indicator in the detection of myocardial damage in patients with CO poisoning.