Genetic screening in acquired long QT syndrome? CAUTION: proceed carefully

Genetics of acquired long QT syndrome.

The QT interval is the electrocardiographic manifestation of ventricular repolarization, is variable under physiologic conditions, and is measurably prolonged by many drugs. Rarely, however, individuals with normal base-line intervals may display exaggerated QT interval prolongation, and the potentially fatal polymorphic ventricular tachycardia torsade de pointes, with drugs or other environmen...

Wikipedia: proceed with caution.

Despite the study's strengths, a minor obstacle in the methodology should be noted. Hasty et al 9 point out that a reporting bias by the reviewers may have caused a discrepancy in dissimilar assertions that failed to show discordance. What 1 reviewer counted as an assertion, another might not have, and thus this was purely left to the subjec-tivity of the reviewer. Different results might have ...

Genetic testing for long QT syndrome.

Genetic Modifiers for the Long-QT Syndrome

The long-QT syndrome (LQTS), probably the best-known genetic disorder causing life-threatening arrhythmias, has become a useful paradigm to study sudden cardiac death in the young. An intriguing feature of LQTS is its incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity which are commonly observed even among members of the same family, all carriers of the same mutation. There is a consensus that thi...

Long QT syndrome - a genetic cardiac channelopathy.

INTRODUCTION Long QT-syndrome (LQTS) is a genetic cardiac channelopathy characterised by a prolonged QT interval on a surface electrocardiogram (ECG), syncope, T-wave abnormalities, ventricular tachycardia of the torsades de pointes (TdPVT) type (Fig. 1) and an increased risk of sudden death [1]. LQTS has variable clinical presentation and is genetically characterised by incomplete penetrance, ...