Background: Limited data are available for the effects of ketogenic diet on dispersion duration of P-wave and QT interval measures in children. We aimed to search for the changes in these measures with serial electrocardiograms in patients treated with ketogenic diet. Methods: Twenty-five drug resistant epileptic patients treated with ketogenic diet were enrolled in this study. Electrocardiography was performed in all patients before the beginning and at the sixth month of ketogenic diet. Heart rate, maximum and minimum P-wave duration, P-wave dispersion, maximum and minimum corrected QT interval and QT dispersion were manually measured from the 12-lead surface electrocardiogram.

Results: Minimum and maximum corrected QT and QT dispersion measurements showed non-significant increase at month 6 when compared to baseline values. Other previously mentioned electrocardiogram parameters showed no significant changes either.

Conclusions: A 6-month duration ketogenic diet has no significant effect on electrocardiogram parameters in children. Further studies with larger samples and longer duration of follow-up are needed to clarify the effects of ketogenic diet on P-wave dispersion, corrected QT and QT dispersion.