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(Circulation. 2007;116:686-688.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Short QT

When Does It Matter?

Mohan N. Viswanathan, MD; Richard L. Page, MD

From the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle.

Correspondence to Dr Richard L. Page, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Robert A. Bruce Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959 NE Pacific St, Room AA510, HSC, Box 356422, Seattle, WA 98195-6422. E-mail rpage@u.washington.edu

Key Words: Editorials • electrocardiography • epidemiology • fibrillation • genetics • torsade de pointes

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

For half a century, the relationship between the QT interval and cardiac arrhythmias has been recognized,¹ although attention has focused primarily on prolongation of the QT. The congenital long-QT syndrome (LQTS) was first identified in patients with syncope, aborted sudden death, or family history of cardiac arrest as an association between a prolonged QT interval and development of potentially fatal polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (torsade de pointes).^2,3 Further research has resulted in the identification of a number of etiologic inherited ion channelopathies, and criteria have been defined to allow diagnosis and evaluation of risk based on the QT interval.⁴ Only in recent years has attention been paid to short QT intervals with the recent discovery of a familial syndrome characterized by short QT interval and sudden death (the short QT syndrome [SQTS]). In this issue of Circulation, Anttonen et al⁵ add to our understanding of the frequency of a short QT interval and prognosis in a general population.

Article p 714

A connection between short QT and sudden cardiac arrest was identified as early as 1993 with an association of increased mortality in patients with both QTc440 ms and QTc<400 ms.⁶ Since that time, the SQTS has been defined,^7,8 and 4 ion channel mutations have been associated with a rapid repolarization phase of the cardiac action potential, abbreviated QT interval on 12-lead ECG, and predilection to sudden cardiac death.^9–12

It may be that formerly "idiopathic" ventricular fibrillation relates to a shortened QT. In 1 study, 35% of men with . . . [Full Text of this Article]