LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
More on the history of arrhythmia in long QT syndrome
Miklós Csanády, MD, DSc, FESC
University of Szeged, 2nd Department of Medicine and Cardiology Center, Korányi fasor 6, Szeged, 6720, Hungary
(Email: csanady{at}in2nd.szote.u-szeged.hu).
I read with great interest the report by Etheridge et al. (1) entitled "A New Oral Therapy for Long QT Syndrome."
First, I should like to congratulate the investigators for their valuable contribution. They found that in patients with long QT syndrome due to HERG mutations there was an improvement in repolarization in parallel with a normalizing serum potassium level after oral potassium (and spironolactone) administration.
Their final sentence summarizes the present situation as follows: "Further studies are warranted to determine whether they will reduce the incidence of life-threatening events in LQTS patients" (1).
We agree with this statement completely, but I would additionally draw the attention of the authors of the study and the Editorial Comment (2) to the family reported by Gamstorp et al. (3) some 40 years ago. Although the affected members of the family were slightly hypokalemic, the administration of potassium led not only to a diminishment of the electrocardiographic abnormalities but also to cessation of the Adams-Stokes attacks.
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References
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1. Etheridge SP, Compton SJ, Tristani-Firouzi M, Mason JW. A new oral therapy for long QT syndrome J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1777-1782.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Bisinov E, Mitchell HJ, January CT. Potassium and long QT syndrome J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1783-1784.[Free Full Text]
3. Gamstorp I, Nilsen R, Westling H. Congenital cardiac arrhythmia Lancet 1964;2:965.
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