Long QT syndrome in children.

T o those of us who were practicing cardiology in the early 1960s, the reports from Jervell and Lange-Nielsen,1 Romano and colleagues,2 and Ward3 were welcome enlightenment for a few of our patients with alarming episodes of syncope and a family history of sudden death. Although Ward reported that one of his original patients responded to ,8-blockade and that form of therapy remains central to medical management of the long QT syndrome, it is clear that ,8-blockade has not been uniformly successful. Subsequently, left stellate ganglionectomy was recommended by Moss and McDonald4 for medically unresponsive cases. But symptoms and deaths have continued, with and without medical and surgical treatment,5 and most of us have concluded that we are dealing with a disease that remains enigmatic, serious, and difficult to treat effectively over a long period.