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Study: Cardiac arrhythmias get a new insight Friday, May 09, 2008 A novel insight into the molecular mechanisms that cause arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, which can lead to sudden death, has been achieved by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital.
The findings of the study could be used to develop genetically-targeted therapies to treat and prevent potentially fatal arrhythmias.
One of the conditions that can cause sudden death is the long QT syndrome (LQTS), a disorder that results in fast, chaotic heartbeats. An LQTS is linked to an increased likelihood of life-threatening arrhythmia.
Dr Gideon Koren, director of the cardiovascular research centre at Rhode Island Hospital and a Professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said that scientists are still struggling to explain why arrhythmia causes sudden cardiac death in some patients, but not others.
"One of the reasons we know so little about it is that, until now, there has not been a good animal model for study," he added.
So, he and his team developed an animal model of LQTS - the first to mimic what happens during arrhythmia in humans - in order to study the various mechanisms that trigger the condition and cause sudden death.
This is the first step towards a better understanding of the issue, but there is much more that scientists still do not know, concluded Dr Koren.
Heart disease was the number one cause of death in the United States in 2005, with 652,091 people dying from the condition, according to figures from the National Centre for Health Statistics.
 © Adfero Ltd
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