BACKGROUND The sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is multifactorial in origin, but its causes remain unknown. We previously proposed that prolongation of the QT interval on the electrocardiogram, possibly resulting from a developmental abnormality in cardiac sympathetic innervation, may increase the risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and contribute to this devastating disorder. W...

Prolongation of QTc interval associated with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) has previously been reported in published case series. We report an unusual case of a patient who presented with TC associated with long-QT syndrome and developed cardiac arrest secondary to torsade de pointes. Since QT prolongation and bradycardia persisted after the resolution of TC, the patient received permanent pace...

BACKGROUND The effects of pregnancy on women with the hereditary long QT syndrome are currently unknown. The appropriate medical management of pregnant patients with the long QT syndrome has not been established. METHODS AND RESULTS The study was a retrospective analysis of the 422 women (111 probands affected with the long QT syndrome and 311 first-degree relatives) enrolled in the long QT s...

AIMS The identification of affected family members with long QT syndrome (LQTS) is often difficult due to their normal-or only marginally lengthened-QT interval duration. We examined whether physical exercise test could increase the ability to detect the mutation carrier status in phenotypically normal LQTS family members. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-six subjects were included: 15 were carriers...

BACKGROUND The rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) is heritable, and the discovery of quantitative trait loci that influence the QTc would be an important step in identifying the genes responsible for life-threatening arrhythmias in the general population. We studied 66 pairs of unselected normal dizygotic (DZ) twin subjects and their parents in a sib-pair analysis. We tested for linkage of gene l...

Two neonates with arrhythmias and the long QT syndrome are described. The arrhythmias were detected in utero and both infants were apparently well after birth. The first infant, although well, had a bradycardia for the first 9 days of life. A normal heart rate was documented at 10 days but a prolonged QT interval was not appreciated on the ECG. He was discharged from hospital but died suddenly ...

Clinicians are well aware that responses to QT-prolonging drugs vary among individuals.1 A drug dose (and concentration) that produces minimal QT prolongation in one patient may, in an apparently indistinguishable subject, produce marked QT prolongation and torsade de pointes. This variability in response to an exogenous stressor is paralleled by variability in the extent to which a given mutat...

cardiac involvement infrequently occurs in hypopituitarism, and lethal cardiac arrhythmias are rarely reported. we present a middle age female who died as a consequence of refractory ventricular arrhythmia whose medical history and previous laboratory investigation were consistent with hypopituitarism. we conclude that hypopituitarism may lead to electrocardiographic changes and malignant ventr...

BACKGROUND The QT interval is a risk marker for cardiac events such as torsades de pointes. However, QT measurements obtained from a 12-lead ECG during clinic hours may not capture the full extent of a patient's daily QT range. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of 24-hour Holter ECG recording in patients with long QT syndrome (LQTS) to identify dynamic changes in...