Hospitalization rate of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in Sweden

Abstract

Introduction: The hospitalization rate of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) in a nationwide study is not established. We determined age- and sex-specific hospitalization rates and time trends for hospitalized PSVT in the Swedish population between 1987 and 2010.

Methods: This nationwide study is based on the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register. The patients with first PSVT diagnoses between January 1987 and December 2010 were identified.

Results: A total of 42,765 individuals with PSVT were diagnosed (mean age 60 years; 44% males). The overall age- and sex-adjusted hospitalization rate was 20 per 100,000 person-years. The hospitalization rate increased with advancing age with highest hospitalization rates in individuals aged 80–84 years (67.12 per 100,000 person-years) and did not change significantly over time. A total of 20,011 (46.8%) patients had “lone” PSVT without any comorbidities. Lone PSVT patients were younger than PSVT patients with comorbidities (mean age 54 vs. 67 years, p = .0002).

Conclusions: This study showed a slight preponderance for females and stable hospitalization rate of PSVT over time; the hospitalization rate increased with age. A high proportion of PSVT patients had no comorbidities. They were affected at a younger age than patients with comorbidities, which suggests an inherent predisposition.

Key messages

• This study represents the first extensive and nationwide hospitalization study of PSVT. Hospitalization is highest in old age but a bimodal pattern was observed with a small peak in the first years of life. Patients with lone PSVT are younger than those with comorbidities; which suggests an inherent predisposition.

Keywords:

• Epidemiologic studies hospitalization
• paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia
• Sweden

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Lund University, Sweden (approval number 409/2008, with amendments approved on 1 September 2009 and 22 January 2010). It was performed in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and there is no risk of identification. Informed consent was waived as a requirement by the ethics committee.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the CPF's Science Editor Patrick Reilly for his useful comments on the text.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability

The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is still subject to further analyses, and will continue to be held and managed by the Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University/Region Skåne, Sweden. Relevant anonymized patient-level data are available from the authors on request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following grants: to Dr Bengt Zöller from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and The Swedish Research Council; to Kristina Sundquist from The Swedish Research Council; to Jan Sundquist, Kristina Sundquist and Bengt Zöller from ALF funding from Region Skåne. Research reported in this publication was also supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HL116381 to Kristina Sundquist. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.