ArticleClinical drug investigation2014
Effects of phenobarbital and levetiracetam on PR and QTc intervals in patients with post-stroke seizure.
Article in Clinical drug investigation, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antiseizure Medications in Poststroke Seizures: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.Neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Risk assessment of arrhythmias related to three antiseizure medications: a systematic review and single-arm meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Antiepileptic drugs for the primary and secondary prevention of seizures after stroke.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Research progress on the relationship between long QT syndrome (LQTS) and epilepsy: A review.Medicine · 2026Review
- Cardiovascular Effects of Antiseizure Medications for Epilepsy.CNS drugs · 2025Review
- Suppression of Electrographic Seizures Is Associated with Amelioration of QTc Interval Prolongation in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Abnormal Cardiac Repolarization After Seizure Episodes in Structural Brain Diseases: Cardiac Manifestation of Electrical Remodeling in the Brain?Journal of the American Heart Association · 2021Article
- Levetiracetam for epilepsy: an evidence map of efficacy, safety and economic profiles.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2019Article
- Epileptic Patients are at Risk of Cardiac Arrhythmias: A Novel Approach using QT-nomogram, Tachogram, and Cardiac Restitution Plots.Journal of neurosciences in rural practiceArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesSudden unexplained/unexpected death (SUDEP) is related to high mortality in patients with epilepsy. The prolongation of QT interval, involved in cardiac arrhythmia-related SUDEP, may be precipitated by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). In this study, we evaluated the effects of phenobarbital and levetiracetam on PR-QTc intervals in patients with post-stroke seizures.
methodsWe performed an open-label, parallel group, prospective, multicenter study between June 2009 and December 2013 in patients older than 18 years of age with a clinical diagnosis of post-stroke seizure and treated with phenobarbital or levetiracetam. In order to exclude a role of cerebral post-stroke injury on modulation of PR and QTc intervals, patients with cerebral post-stroke injury and without seizures were also enrolled as controls.
resultsInterictal electrocardiography analysis revealed no significant difference in PR interval between patients treated with an AED (n = 49) and control patients (n = 50) (181.25 ± 12.05 vs. 182.4 ± 10.3 ms; p > 0.05). In contrast, a significantly longer QTc interval was recorded in patients treated with an AED compared with control patients (441.2 ± 56.6 vs. 396.8 ± 49.3 ms; p < 0.01). Patients treated with phenobarbital showed a significantly longer QTc interval than patients treated with levetiracetam (460.0 ± 57.2 vs. 421.5 ± 50.1 ms; p < 0.05).
conclusionsThe study reported that in patients with late post-stroke seizures, phenobarbital prolonged QTc interval more so than levetiracetam.
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