Heart Condition Saturday: Long QT Syndrome
May 7, 2006 by Lei
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
This week’s Heart Condition Saturday focuses on long QT syndrome (LQTS), a condition that affects 1 in 7,000 people, usually children or young adults. From the American Heart Association:
Long Q-T syndrome is an infrequent, hereditary disorder of the heart’s electrical rhythm that can occur in otherwise-healthy people. It usually affects children or young adults.
Symptoms include:
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Sudden fainting
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Passsing out during exercise or intense emotions
The disorder means the heart is unable to coordinate the pumping of blood and none is passed from the heart to the brain which is deprived of oxgen. This then leads to sudden loss of consciousness and death.
Last Saturday, The Times UK had a story about Lisa Jane Browne who was literally startled to death by her battery-operated alarm clock. She suffered from undiagnosed LQTS. Since then, her father, sister, and nephews have all been diagnosed with LQTS.
Browne had complained of extreme exhaustion to her doctor, but was prescribed a low dose of antidepressants (contraindicated for use in patients with LQTS). One has to wonder if this would have been the course of treatment had a man complained of similar symptoms.
Tags: cardio, cardiovascular disease, cvd, health, heart, heart disease, long qt, long qt syndrome
