(Circulation. 2001;103:2361.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Clinical Investigation and Reports |
From the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (P.M.S., R.B.), Bethesda, Md; Brigham and Womens Hospital (C.A.), Boston, Mass; Boston University (E.J.B.), Boston, Mass; Case Western Reserve University (R.C.E.), Cleveland, Ohio; Vanderbilt University (A.L.G.), Nashville, Tenn; Hospital Boucicaut, Paris, France (X.J.); University of Pittsburgh (L.H.K.), Pittsburgh, Pa; Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (J.W.M.), San Antonio, Texas; Johns Hopkins Medical School (E.M.), Baltimore, Md; Harvard Medical School (J.E.M.), Boston, Mass; University of Pavia (P.J.S.) Pavia, Italy; University of Washington (D.S.S.), Seattle; University of Vermont (R.P.T.), Colchester; University of Rochester (W.Z.), Rochester, NY; and Indiana University (D.P.Z.), Indianapolis.
Correspondence to Peter M. Spooner, PhD, Director, Arrhythmias, Ischemia, and Sudden Cardiac Death, Division of Heart and Vascular Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Two Rockledge Center, Suite 9192, 6701 Rockledge Dr, MSC 7940, Bethesda, MD 20892-7940. E-mail PS48J{at}nih.gov
| Abstract |
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Key Words: genetics death, sudden arrhythmia tachyarrhythmias epidemiology mortality ion channels
| Introduction |
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To explore these issues, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened an Expert Workshop to consider the evidence that new elements of familial association may be involved, to explore etiologies of these relationships, and to provide ideas on how they might best be addressed. This report represents the results of those deliberations. The ideas expressed here represent the views of the participants, not opinions or positions endorsed in any way by the NHLBI. The workshop considered four major questions: (1) What factors contribute to arrhythmia susceptibility? (2) Do new data on familial SCD risks justify a search for additional susceptibility elements? (3) What molecular processes might be involved? and (4) How can new genetic and population investigations help resolve these issues? The major focus of the discussions involved the identification of "susceptibility candidates" most likely to elevate risk of SCD in common cardiac conditions. The approach taken in the discussion that follows is to consider factors that contribute to lethal arrhythmias in rare inherited cardiac conditions and then to explore new evidence on risk factors for SCD in common patient populations.
| Inherited Causes of SCD and Ventricular Arrhythmias |
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-subunits
KvLQT1 (LQT-1) and Herg (LQT-2); 2 genes coding the K channel
regulatory ß-subunits, minK (LQT-5) and MiRP1 (LQT-6); and a gene
associated with one form of LQTS, designated LQT-4, of unknown origin
(reviewed in Roden and
Spooner8 ). Most recently,
mutations in the cardiac ryanodine receptor Ca channel gene were
identified in a related form of inherited
tachycardia.9
In addition to the rare, ion channelbased
arrhythmias, occurrence of inherited susceptibility to SCD is
associated with other, less well understood pathologies. Prominent
among these are mutations in contractile, structural, and cytoskeletal
proteins. Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathies
with a high incidence of SCD have been linked to mutations in at least
9 cardiac sarcomeric proteins (the ß-myosin heavy chain, myosin
binding protein C,
-actin, troponins I and T,
-tropomyosin, the
cardiac essential and regulatory light chains, and titin [reviewed in
Bonne et al10 and Seidman
and Seidman11 ]). Enhanced
SCD has also been reported in inherited dilated
cardiomyopathy to be associated with mutations in
cytoskeletal proteins such as dystrophin, desmin, and
-actin and the
nuclear envelope proteins lamins A and C, with the latter involving
primarily conduction system
disease.12 13
With some of these conditions, there appear to be plausible functional
associations (eg, alterations in Ca handling) between molecular
aberration and electrical performance, whereas with others (eg,
mutations in lamins or
NKX2.514 ) in which there are
overt electrical disturbances, connection with processes that
could affect electrical stability would appear far downstream of the
lesions detected to date. As with LQTS, most of these aberrations have
been thought to reflect effects in the working myocardium,
but defects in sinoatrial or AV node cells and His-Purkinje conduction
may also occur and manifest clinically with symptoms of heart block and
bradyarrhythmias. For other conditions, of which arrhythmogenic
right ventricular cardiomyopathy is a
prime example, genes are just beginning to be identified, but
chromosomal sites, now at least 7 in number, have been mapped and the
incidence of electrical disturbances, as well as extensive
myocardial remodeling, has been well documented. In the first case to
be successfully resolved, a mutation in the structural protein
plakoglobin, a component of adherent intercellular junctions, was
identified in an autosomal recessive form of arrhythmogenic right
ventricular cardiomyopathy, Naxos
disease, but whether this results in altered patterns of cell-cell
conduction has not been
established.15
| SCD: The "Phenotype Problem" |
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Phenotypic dissonance with inherited forms of SCD may thus be similar to that encountered with other complex, multigene diseases, such as highly familial forms of hypertension, diabetes, or atherosclerosis, but with little in the way of identification of the specific traits involved. Genetic influences on SCD events are suggested, however, by observations such as the finding that women have a lower overall incidence of SCD than men24 yet also appear more sensitive to drug-induced or LQTS arrhythmias. Such findings may be attributable in part to differences in repolarization parameters that are under hormonal control,25 and it seems likely that other factors are also involved.
Much of the genotype-phenotype problem with arrhythmic diseases also reflects the fact that SCD simply represents a clinical outcome, ie, cardiac arrest, a common mechanism of death, rather than a change in identifiable metabolic, biochemical, or pathological events. As such, it can be the result of various clinical events, and the standard accepted definition of SCD (any near instantaneous, electrically based, cessation of cardiac output in individuals with otherwise uncompromised circulatory function26 ) is, from a mechanistic perspective, as ambiguous a phenotype imaginable. At issue is the differentiation of comorbid conditions from proximal arrhythmogenic events. Until we learn more about the combinations of terminal processes in arrhythmogenesis in different acquired diseases, it seems unlikely a more precise characterization of common high-risk SCD phenotypes, which apply in progressive chronic diseases, will emerge. What may be possible instead is identification of "signature" combinations of particularly destabilizing molecular events that could then help guide prevention efforts. In conjunction with conventional stratification approaches including standard and T-wave alternans, ECG analyses, or ejection fraction, improved SCD phenotyping with new approaches and recognition of new information, for example, on ventricular ectopy,27 could add considerably to our abilities to recognize differing degrees of arrhythmia risk.
| Multiple Elements of SCD Risk |
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New studies on conventional risk factors in population-based studies on coronary heart disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and other predisposing conditions will also be important in therapy selection. There are now abundant data from large-scale epidemiological studies undertaken over the past 20 years, such as the Framingham Heart Study, the Physicians Health Study, and the Nurses Health Study, as well as others, that are proving quite useful in deciphering heritable arrhythmia susceptibilities. In the past, such approaches have proven most useful in identifying traditional metabolic, behavioral, and dietary risk factors for CAD, such as blood pressure, smoking, gender, diabetes, physical inactivity, and triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, and HDL levels and ratios, as well as their influence on overall cardiac mortality.28 In many of these studies, however, it has not been possible to determine whether the resulting morbidity and mortality data can be directly associated with an arrhythmic pathology. The work has nevertheless been valuable in identifying relative and absolute risks associated with these elements, and the results have had important public health implications. Algorithms that attempt to extend conventional risk factor prediction studies to assessment of specific individuals and classes of cardiac patients have also been promulgated but appear to be of much more limited value. This reflects many factors, including reliance on population-based "normal values" and the problem that extension of norms to individuals does not generally consider differences in genetic diversity between the groups sampled and those being assessed. Evidence of the unreliability of focusing on only those previously identified risk factors for CAD as a means of reducing premature cardiovascular mortality is, for example, well reflected in the observation that a high percentage of SCDs still occur in individuals with no elevation in currently recognized traditional risk factors.1 New approaches applicable to understanding individual and disease-specific elements of molecular SCD susceptibility are thus likely to play an increasingly significant role in reducing cardiovascular mortality in the future.
| Appendix 1 |
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Organizing Committee
Eric A. Boerwinkle, PhD; Jean W. MacCluer, PhD; James
E. Muller, MD; David S. Siscovick, MD; Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD;
and Russell P. Tracy, MD, PhD.
NHLBI Staff
Peter M. Spooner, PhD, and Robin Boineau,
MD.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 The authors listed here provided summary material reflecting contributions from the full group of workshop participants (see Appendix). Dr Spooner was responsible for the manuscript. ![]()
Received November 7, 2000; revision received February 1, 2001; accepted February 16, 2001.
| References |
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