Heart Condition Saturday: Long QT Syndrome
This week’s Heart Condition Saturday focuses on long QT syndrome (LQTS), a condition that affects 1 in 7,000 people, usually children or young adults. From the American Heart Association:
Long Q-T syndrome is an infrequent, hereditary disorder of the heart’s electrical rhythm that can occur in otherwise-healthy people. It usually affects children or young adults.
Symptoms include:
-
Sudden fainting
-
Passsing out during exercise or intense emotions
The disorder means the heart is unable to coordinate the pumping of blood and none is passed from the heart to the brain which is deprived of oxgen. This then leads to sudden loss of consciousness and death.
Last Saturday, The Times UK had a story about Lisa Jane Browne who was literally startled to death by her battery-operated alarm clock. She suffered from undiagnosed LQTS. Since then, her father, sister, and nephews have all been diagnosed with LQTS.
Browne had complained of extreme exhaustion to her doctor, but was prescribed a low dose of antidepressants (contraindicated for use in patients with LQTS). One has to wonder if this would have been the course of treatment had a man complained of similar symptoms.
Tags: cardio, cardiovascular disease, cvd, health, heart, heart disease, long qt, long qt syndrome
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Heart Conditions
4 opinions for Heart Condition Saturday: Long QT Syndrome
Genetics and Health » Cardiac Genes Linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
May 22, 2006 at 3:16 pm
[…] New research suggests that two genes related to the heart may be linked to SIDS. The caveolin-3 (CAV3) gene is related to long QT syndrome and the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) gene is involved in distinct genetic heart rhythm disease known as catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT). These two genes may account for up to 15 percent of SIDS cases. (Not sure how confident I would be of these figures considering they only studed the tissue from 135 cases of SIDS.) […]
A Hearty Life » Heart Problems Related To Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
May 22, 2006 at 3:24 pm
[…] Two genes related to cardiac function has been found to be associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - the caveolin-3 (CAV3) gene related to long QT syndrome and the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) gene involved in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT). […]
A Hearty Life » Screening for Long QT Syndrome in Newborns
Jul 14, 2006 at 12:01 pm
[…] Italian researchers are recommending that newborns be screened for long QT syndrome when they’re three to four weeks old. In a study of 45,000 infants, they found that up to 230 to 250 babies a year in the European Union can be saved from sudden infant death syndrome which is often a result of long QT syndrome. For example, out of 550,000 babies born each year in Italy, about 220 have LQTS. Without screening, 13.5 percent (30) of them would die early. Screening would reduce that to 3.2 percent (7), meaning that 23 lives would be saved each year, the researchers said. […]
A Hearty Life » Olympic Swimmer Dana Vollmer’s Heart Condition
Oct 27, 2006 at 8:48 pm
[…] Three years ago, swimmer Dana Vollmer was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome, a disorder of the heart’s electrical rhythm, but that didn’t stop her from winning a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics. In the spring of 2003, Vollmer’s heart began to race. Soon after, dizzy spells began. […]
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: