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Biomedical subjects

I Denjoy

Publications and source records attributed to I Denjoy.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

[Congenital long QT syndrome].

SEVERAL FORMS: Congenital long QT syndrome is a clinically (with and without deafness) and genetically (recessive or dominant autosomal inheritance) heterogeneous entity characterized by a long QT interval on the ECG associated with the risk of severe ventricular arrhythmia (torsade de pointes, ventricular fibrillation) and subsequent syncope or sudden death. GENETIC DATA: This rare familial syndrome is transmitted by different modes of inheritance and occurs in subjects with a morphologically normal heart. The severity of the prognosis justifies screening tests. The genetic origin of the disease has been confirmed and at least 5 loci and 4 genes have been identified, giving a perfect illustration of adrenergic ventricular rhythm disorders. Beta-blockers are used as first line treatment in symptomatic patients. PREVENTION: All drugs favoring QT interval lengthening are contraindicated in all subjects with a genetic anomaly. All members of the direct family must have a Holter recording and genotype in order to identify mutation carriers or asymptomatic patients.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

Diagnostic performance of QT interval variables from 24-h electrocardiography in the long QT syndrome.

AIMS: The long QT syndrome is mainly defined by QT interval prolongation (QTc > 0.44s). However, data obtained in genotyped patients showed that resting QTc measurement alone may be inaccurate for ascertaining the phenotype. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of QT interval rate-dependence in untreated chromosome 11-linked patients. METHODS: The study population consisted of 25 untreated long QT patients linked to chromosome 11 and 25 age- and gender-matched controls. QTc intervals were measured on 12-lead resting ECG recordings. From 24-h Holter recordings, the slope of the relationship between ventricular repolarization and heart rate was studied separately day and night to assess neural modulation. Mean heart rates and rate-dependences of QT and Q-maximum of T (QTm) intervals were compared between long QT patients and controls for both time periods. RESULTS: In both groups, the rate-dependences were modulated by day-night influences. When compared to controls, long QT patients showed a significant increase at night in QT/RR slopes (0.158 +/- 0.05 vs 0.117 +/- 0.03, P = 0.002) and QTm/RR slopes (0.163 +/- 0.05 vs 0.116 +/- 0.04, P = 0.0006). Multivariate analysis, adjusting QTc interval on age and gender, discriminated between long QT patients and controls with a 76% sensitivity and a 84% specificity. A 96% sensitivity and a 96% specificity were reached by taking into account the QTm/RR slope at night, the QTc interval and the mean heart rate during the day. CONCLUSION: QT interval variables obtained from 24-h ECG recordings improve long QT syndrome diagnosis by showing an increased nocturnal ventricular repolarization rate-dependence in genotyped chromosome 11-linked patients.

Adolescent↗

[QT interval and drugs. Recommendation for drug prescription for patients with long QT syndrome. Clinical Research Group of INSERM 4940 12: Diagnostic Clinic of Congenital Long QT Syndrome].

The genetics of the long QT syndrome are now better understood. However, there is much heterogeneity as three different genes have already been identified affecting the function of sodium and potassium channels. The aim of these recommendations is to draw up a list of drugs which are contraindicated or not recommended in patients with congenital long QT syndromes. The conraindicated drugs are those with which torsades de pointe have already been described. Drugs not recommended are substances which are not electrohysiologically neutral and for which, in view of their modes of action, their metabolism or belonging to a particular therapeutic class, make them very difficult to use in those patients. It is therefore better not to prescribe them whenever possible in this condition. These substances belong mainly to cardiovascular (especially antiarrhythmic), psychotropic, anti-infectious and antiallergic groups of drugs.

Anti-Allergic Agents↗

KVLQT1 C-terminal missense mutation causes a forme fruste long-QT syndrome.

BACKGROUND: KVLQT1, the gene encoding the alpha-subunit of a cardiac potassium channel, is the most common cause of the dominant form of long-QT syndrome (LQT1-type), the Romano-Ward syndrome (RWS). The overall phenotype of RWS is characterized by a prolonged QT interval on the ECG and cardiac ventricular arrhythmias leading to recurrent syncopes and sudden death. However, there is considerable variability in the clinical presentation, and potential severity is often difficult to evaluate. To analyze the relationship between phenotypes and underlying defects in KVLQT1, we investigated mutations in this gene in 20 RWS families originating from France. METHODS AND RESULTS: By PCR-SSCP analysis, 16 missense mutations were identified in KVLQT1, 11 of them being novel. Fifteen mutations, localized in the transmembrane domains S2-S3, S4-S5, P, and S6, were associated with a high percentage of symptomatic carriers (55 of 95, or 58%) and sudden deaths (23 of 95, or 24%). In contrast, a missense mutation, Arg555Cys, identified in the C-terminal domain in 3 families, was associated with a significantly less pronounced QT prolongation (459+/-33 ms, n=41, versus 480+/-32 ms, n=70, P=.0012), and significantly lower percentages of symptomatic carriers (7 of 44, or 16%, P<.001) and sudden deaths (2 of 44, or 5%, P<.01). Most of the cardiac events occurring in these 3 families were triggered by drugs known to affect ventricular repolarization. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show a wide KVLQT1 allelic heterogeneity among 20 families in which KVLQT1 causes RWS. We describe the first missense mutation in the C-terminal domain of KVLQT1, which is clearly associated with a fruste phenotype, which could be a favoring factor of acquired LQT syndrome.

Adult↗

[Long QT syndrome under cisapride in neonates and infants].

BACKGROUND: Cisapride is frequently used in the newborn and infant for treatment of gastroesophageal reflux. Twisting-spikes have been reported in adults due to overdosage or therapeutic interaction. We report seven cases of QT prolongation in infants treated with cisapride. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Seven children (one full-term, two mature preterms, four preterm babies), aged (mean, range) 41.8 +/- 21 days (14-79) weighing 2.1 +/- 1.1 kg (1.2-4), free from any cardiac abnormality, except one patent ductus arteriosus, have been studied by ECG and Holter monitoring. They received cisapride at a mean dose of 1.31 +/- 0.2 mg/kg/d (between 1 and 1.7 mg/kg/d). RESULTS: The corrected QT (QTc: N < 450 ms) was increased to 486 ms (450-540) with a notched T-wave pattern. No arrhythmia was detected. In five cases, cisapride was stopped and changed to metoclopramide. Cisapride dosage was reduced to 0.8 mg/kg/d in the two others. No other therapeutic modification was done. A control ECG performed 48 hours after therapeutic changes showed a QTc shortening of 74 +/- 18 ms (45-90) and the disappearance of the notches independent of any heart rate changes, leading to normal QTc values: 413 +/- 21 ms (390-440). CONCLUSION: High cisapride dosage in preterm, newborns and infants seems to favor QT prolongation which is reversible when dosage is reduced or drug is stopped. The use of cisapride in combination with other drugs known to increase QT should be done with extreme caution.

Anti-Ulcer Agents↗

A novel mutation in the potassium channel gene KVLQT1 causes the Jervell and Lange-Nielsen cardioauditory syndrome.

The Jervell and Lange-Nielsen (JLN) syndrome (MIM 220400) is an inherited autosomal recessive disease characterized by a congenital bilateral deafness associated with a QT prolongation on the electrocardiogram, syncopal attacks due to ventricular arrhythmias and a high risk of sudden death. JLN syndrome is a rare disease, which seems to affect less than one percent of all deaf children. Linkage to chromosome 11p15.5 markers was found by analysing four consanguinous families. Recombinants allowed us to map the JLN gene between D11S922 and D11S4146, to a 6-cM interval where KVLQT1, a potassium channel gene causing Romano-Ward (RW) syndrome, the dominant form of long QT syndrome, has been previously localized. An homozygous deletion-insertion event (1244, -7 +8) in the C-terminal domain of this gene was detected in three affected children of two families. We found that KVLQT1 is expressed in the stria vascularis of mouse inner ear by in situ hybridization. Taken together, our data indicate that KVLQT1 is responsible for both JLN and RW syndromes and has a key role not only in the ventricular repolarization but also in normal hearing, probably via the control of endolymph homeostasis.

Adult↗

[Sustained ventricular tachycardia in older children. Spontaneous regression in 3 cases].

Extensively described since Gallvardin's reports, the electrical features of salves of ventricular tachycardia in an apparently healthy heart are now well known. The usual benign nature of this arrhythmia is acknowledged, seldom contradicted by isolated clinical cases. Although chronicity is the rule in young adults, there have been a few publications concerning the natural history of these tachycardias in the paediatric age group. The authors report three cases of episodic sustained ventricular tachycardia in older children, presenting at an average of 7 years of age (range 5 to 9 years) and followed up for an average of 7 years (range: 5.5 to 9 years). These three children were treated for an average of 4.5 years (range: 3 to 5.5 years). All treatment was finally withdrawn when stable permanent sinus rhythm without ventricular extrasystoles was restored and confirmed over an average period of 2 years (range 10 months to 3.5 years), an average of 4 (range 3 to 7) successive normal Holter recordings at several months' interval. The outcome in children to spontaneous regression after several years would seem to make radiofrequency ablation more dangerous than useful given the benign nature of the arrhythmia and its good response to pharmacological intervention.

Adult↗

Comparison of the safety and efficacy of flecainide versus propafenone in hospital out-patients with symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation/flutter. The Flecainide AF French Study Group.

To assess the cardiac and extracardiac safety and efficacy of flecainide versus propafenone in patients suffering from episodes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter, 97 patients were enrolled in a randomized, open-label, long-term, parallel, comparative multicenter study. The diagnosis of paroxysmal AF or atrial flutter had to be fully documented prior to inclusion in the study. Of the 97 patients enrolled in the study, 48 patients (25 men, 23 women, mean age 62.4 +/- 12.3 years) received flecainide; 49 patients (26 men, 23 women, mean age 63.6 +/- 12.2 years) received propafenone. The initial dose of flecainide was 50 mg twice daily, and this could be increased in steps of 50 mg twice daily every 4 days to a maximum of 300 mg/day. The initial dose of propafenone was 300 mg twice daily and this could be increased in steps of 300 mg every 4 days to a maximum of 1200 mg/day. At each visit, medical events, vital sign measurements (blood pressure, pulse rate), concomitant medications, adverse experiences, and study drug dosage changes were evaluated. Routine clinical laboratory tests were evaluated at the month 6 visit, and a 24-hr Holter recording was obtained at the month 1 visit. Almost half (45) of the patients were discontinued from the study before completing 1 year of therapy. The probability of successful treatment versus time--i.e., the proportion of patients who remained on therapy over the course of 1 year therapy--was 0.619 for the flecainide group and 0.469 for the propafenone group (p = 0.079; difference not significant). The difference is largely attributed to the higher proportion of patients in the propafenone group (9) than in the flecainide group (2) who experienced side effects important enough to stop the treatment. (The incidence of side effects was not statistically different between treatment groups, although it was higher in the propafenone group.) The proportion of patients who discontinued treatment due to inadequate response was similar in the 2 groups: 11 patients (22.9%) in the flecainide group and 12 patients (24.4%) in the propafenone group withdrew from the study, primarily because of an inadequate response, i.e., they experienced an increase in duration, frequency, and severity of attacks of AF or atrial flutter. Neurologic signs, central and peripheral, were mostly encountered in the flecainide group (8.5%), and, gastrointestinal effects were more often reported in the propafenone group (16.7%). In paroxysmal AF and paroxysmal atrial flutter, flecainide and propafenone are equally effective. However, in this study the probability of a patient's staying on flecainide after 1 year had a tendency to be higher than the probability of staying on propafenone, due to a greater proportion of secondary effects with propafenone.

Adult↗

A mutation in HERG associated with notched T waves in long QT syndrome.

Long QT syndrome (LQT) is a genetically heterogeneous inherited disorder that causes sudden death from cardiac arrhythmia. Four loci have been mapped to chromosomes 3, 4, 7 and 11 and three specific mutated genes for LQT syndrome have been identified. LQT2 results from mutations in the human ether-a-gogo-related gene, HERG, a cardiac potassium channel, whose protein product likely underlies Ikd the rapidly activating delayed rectifier current. By SSCP analysis and direct sequencing, we determined a new missense mutation in the HERG coding sequence, a G to A transition at position 1681 resulting in the substitution of threonine for a highly conserved alanine at codon 561. This mutation, Ala561Thr, in the coding sequence of the fifth membrane-spanning domain (S5) of the HERG protein seems to convey a risk of cardiac events in affected family members. In addition to a prolonged T wave of low amplitude on the surface ECG, a distinctive biphasic T-wave pattern was found in the left precordial leads of all affected subjects with the Ala561Thr mutation regardless of age, gender and beta blocking therapy.

Adolescent↗

Exclusion of KCNE1 (IsK) as a candidate gene for Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome.

The KCNE1 gene encodes a small protein, IsK, of 14.4 kDa, with a single transmembrane domain, and is part of a potassium channel expressed in the heart. This channel is thought to underly the very slow component of the cardiac delayed rectifying current which controls the duration and the degree of ventricular repolarization. This suggested that KCNE1 could be the morbid gene responsible for an autosomal recessive cardio-auditory disease, the Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome, characterized by ventricular repolarization abnormalities and recurrent syncopes leading eventually to sudden death associated with a bilateral congenital deafness. By linkage analysis in four consmanguinous families, using microsatellite markers of chromosome 21 as well as KCNE1 intragenic polymorphisms, we excluded KCNE1 as a candidate gene for Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome. In addition, we described a new polymorphism, a G-to-A substitution at position 253, in the KCNE1 coding sequence detectable by SSCP analysis or RFLP.

Female↗

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia in children. A 7-year follow-up of 21 patients.

BACKGROUND: Primary ventricular tachyarrhythmias are rarely seen in children. Among them, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia has a poor spontaneous outcome. Its diagnosis is often delayed after the first symptoms, which is unacceptable because treatment with the appropriate beta-blocker prevents sudden death. METHODS AND RESULTS: We observed 21 children (mean +/- SD age, 9.9 +/- 4 years) at the time of the diagnosis who had no structural heart disease and a normal QT interval on routine ECG. They were referred for stress- or emotion-induced syncope related to ventricular polymorphic tachyarrhythmias. The arrhythmia, consisting of isolated polymorphic ventricular extrasystoles followed by salvoes of bidirectional and polymorphic tachycardia susceptible to degeneration into ventricular fibrillation, was reproducibly induced by any form of increasing adrenergic stimulation. There was a familial history of syncope or sudden death in 30% of our patients. On receiving therapy with the appropriate beta-blocker, the patients' symptoms and polymorphic tachyarrhythmias disappeared. During a mean follow-up period of 7 years, three syncopal events and two sudden deaths occurred, probably due to treatment interruption. CONCLUSIONS: The entity of adrenergic-dependent, potentially lethal tachyarrhythmia with no structural heart disease deserves to be individualized. It may form a variant of the congenital long QT syndrome in which the ECG marker is lacking; this primary ventricular arrhythmia must be looked for in a pediatric patient with stress- or emotion-induced syncope because only beta-blocking therapy can prevent sudden death and therefore must be given for the patient's lifetime.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

Readjusting the localization of long QT syndrome gene on chromosome 11p15.

Long QT syndrome (LQT) is an autosomal dominant cardiac disease characterized by ventricular arrhythmia. A first locus for LQT has been identified on chromosome 11p15.5 (LQT1), closely linked to HRAS. To refine the location of LQT1, microsatellites were genotyped in 8 French families and the following order was determined: tel-HRAS-DRD4-D11S922-D11S4046- IGF2-INS-TH-D11S1318-D11S1323-D11S1338-D11S90 9-D11S1346-cen. By haplotype analysis, 12 crossing-over events were identified in affected and unaffected subjects, delineating the LQT1 candidate region to 7 cM. This new delineated localization between D11S1318 and D11S1323 is in a more centromeric region than previously thought and is 5 cM proximal to HRAS.

Chromosome Mapping↗

[Congenital long QT syndrome: an elective indication for betablocker treatment. Apropos of 5 cases].

The authors report 5 cases of the long QT syndrome. The patients had malaises and syncopes triggered by exercise or emotional stress, occurring before 10 years of age. The diagnosis was delayed by an average of 38 months (range: 2 to 72 months) from the first symptom and systematic familial study which was positive in 4 of the 5 cases. The corrected QT intervals varied from 0.46 to 0.56 second. All patients were prescribed the betablocker nadolol, resulting in total regression of symptoms with no deaths during an average follow-up period of 40 months (range: 26 to 64 months). The long QT syndrome is a rare hereditary disorder comprising several entities. Recent genetic advances have improved our understanding of the condition. All have an idiopathic prolongation of the QT interval (> 0.44 second) in common with a predisposition to syncope due to torsades de pointes which may cause sudden death. The spontaneous arrhythmic mortality, which was early and high, has been remarkably decreased by betablocker therapy, from 73% to 6% at 10 years. The authors find nadolol to be extremely reliable and well tolerated, and recommend it as the drug of choice in this indication.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

[Value of the exercise test in the study of arrhythmia].

Exercise testing may be used to assess symptoms occurring on effort, to search for and evaluate arrhythmias or conduction defects, antiarrhythmic drugs, pacemakers or implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Interpretation of exercise testing is difficult because of the complexity of the factors in play. Exercise itself induces changes in myocardial metabolism and the autonomic nervous system, the nature and importance of which are influenced by the underlying cardiac disease and the presence of cardiac failure or myocardial ischaemia. This is particularly true when studying the behaviour of arrhythmias on effort, which depends on many parameters, in that they may appear or disappear during exercise, irrespective of their relationship to autonomic nervous system activation. The main problem lies in the interpretation of changes in the heart rate before the onset of an arrhythmia. The sinus rhythm is both a passive indicator of the vago-sympathetic equilibrium and one of the determining factor of the arrhythmia (relationship to the rate), but it is, itself, dependent on the presence of myocardial dysfunction, a source of arrhythmias, and its changes then become difficult to interpret. These reasons explain why exercise testing is certainly a valuable tool in assessing arrhythmias but the poor reproducibility, especially in the evaluation of ventricular arrhythmias, advises prudence in the interpretation of results.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗

[Dynamics of ventricular repolarisation].

The clinical value of assessing the QT interval is obvious as it is a marker of ventricular depolarisation and repolarisation and it allows identification of clinical situations carrying a high risk of ventricular fibrillation and sudden death. Until the last few years, analysis of ventricular repolarisation was based on analysis of conventional surface electrocardiography. Technical difficulties explain the limits of our knowledge of the dynamics of ventricular repolarisation. This situation is beginning to change rapidly by computerised analysis of Holter monitoring, opening up a particularly complex and important field of research. The duration of the QT interval depends on different factors, especially changes in electrolyte balance, effects of certain drugs, and changes in heart rate and autonomic nervous system tone. The difficulty resides in selecting the pertinent data in order to study separately the effects of heart rate and those of the autonomic nervous system. The initial results show that this analysis provides important information for diagnosis and probably prognosis, on the status of the myocardium and the action of the autonomous nervous system. They require confirmation and validation on larger series of patients with different pathological conditions.

Action Potentials↗