(Circulation. 1995;92:2786-2789.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
From the Department of Medicine (A.A.G., K.R.C.), Center for Molecular Genetics (K.R.C.), and the American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation Center for Molecular Biology (A.A.G., K.R.C.), University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, Calif; the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, England (A.A.G.); and the Department of Cardiology, Papworth Hospital (A.A.G.), Cambridge, England.
Correspondence to Andrew A. Grace, PhD, MRCP, American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation Center for Molecular Biology, Department of Medicine, 0613-C, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093-0613.
Key Words: editorials arrhythmia genetics molecular biology
| Introduction |
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The T wave is a defining component of repolarization, but the precise mechanisms underlying its inscription have so far escaped elucidation.13 14 What is clear is that the T wave is a sensitive index of physiological and pathological changes within ventricular myocardium14 and that, in addition, T wave abnormalities with a range of configurations are documented in LQTS.9 15 16 17 Specific molecular defects in LQTS are now shown to generally correlate with relatively subtle phenotypic alterations encompassing the T wave.11 In certain respects, the T wave and the QTc interval must be considered in unity, and the present report11 raises interesting questions in regard to terminology. The assessment of the QTc interval is restricted to quantifying duration, although T waves clearly have other morphological features that allow for a more complex description. The well-documented overlap of QTc intervals between symptomatic LQTS and unaffected control subjects18 indicated that a key step toward obtaining genetic linkage was establishing a tight definition of QTc criteria.4 In view of the potential presence of T wave abnormalities with normal QTc, it is possible that T wave abnormalities may prove, at the very least, to be a clinically useful independent descriptive characteristic of LQTS. If such proves the case, the banner heading of "congenital repolarization syndromes" may have more than just semantic appeal in that it may encourage clinicians to consider the possibility of the diagnosis even in the absence of QTc prolongation. Although the relatively small kindreds will pose difficulties, it may also become of interest to review T wave appearances in other conditions such as idiopathic ventricular fibrillation that have considerable clinical similarities to LQTS in the absence of QTc prolongation.19 20
| Mechanism of Repolarization Changes |
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T waves represent the summation of complex, temporally dispersed events having considerable regional heterogeneity.14 Different cell populations in endocardial, midmyocardial, and epicardial layers display distinct patterns of expression of sodium and potassium currents, thereby reflecting variation in relevant channel distribution.21 22 Modification of the function of scattered mutated channels might disturb necessarily regimented patterns, which could then be exaggerated under conditions of stress. Therefore, the most probable explanation for the repolarization changes observed by Moss et al11 and emphasized previously15 16 is dispersion of repolarization secondary to differential current activity, reflecting a mixture of mutated and wild-type channels at individual myocardial locations.22 23 The specific myocardial regions that produce such heterogeneity are not established, and their identification clearly will be of interest. Of course, one cannot exclude a role of afterdepolarizations in contributing to some reported T wave morphologies.15 16 However, the implied relative stability of most reported changes seems to argue for cellular heterogeneity being a more important determinant.
| Implications for Arrhythmogenesis in LQTS |
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The sympathetic nervous system has been the focus of critical interest in LQTS.9 12 Indeed, for many years, the primary defect was suggested to be the result of asymmetrical cardiac sympathetic input. The detailed exploration of this possibility has provided many useful mechanistic and therapeutic insights.9 12 An important role for sympathetic activation in triggering has been supported by effective, albeit formally untested, therapies with ß-blockers and left cardiac sympathetic denervation.12 The direct autonomic modulation of both normal and dysfunctional channels, coupled with spatial heterogeneity, may account for exaggerated T wave appearances following adrenergic stress and exercise and documented before the onset of torsade de pointes.9 Further investigation of individual coupling of channels to specific adrenoceptors, therefore, may have potentially important therapeutic implications.
| Relevance to the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Ventricular Arrhythmias |
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Analysis of the LQTS problem has important implications in regard to drug design and development. The delayed rectifier has been a target in the development of class III agents, with the aim being to create a dysfunctional, albeit antiarrhythmic, repolarization syndrome.35 36 Although there is a suggestion of clinical benefit from some class III agents,37 there is also anecdotal evidence from pilot studies of the induction by some drugs of T wave morphological changes similar to those seen with LQTS. Thus, in certain clinical circumstances, pharmacological block of currents that are primarily responsible for repolarization might promote conditions that could encourage arrhythmia development. Clearly, this is becoming an important consideration in the application of class III antiarrhythmic agents, especially in the context of damaged ventricles in which dispersion may already be exaggerated.29 38 Unfortunately, improved targeting to specific ion channels or their domains may not necessarily prove more effective, as nonspecific repolarization delay and increased dispersion may be inescapable outcomes. Such a point may be clarified by survival analyses related to different LQTS mutations; it is even possible such data may prove valuable in the further development of these agents.
| Molecular Analysis of Arrhythmia Substrates |
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The investigation of the molecular determinants of a complex phenotype, such as repolarization, will ultimately require in vivo analysis that uses experimental approaches coupling genetics to appropriate assessments of cardiac electrophysiology.39 The techniques required for the cardiac-specific expression of constitutively active or dominant-negative ion channel proteins, as well as the genetic ablation or manipulation of individual ion channels, are now in place. The use of such technology should allow a systematic analysis of channel function in in vivo electrophysiological phenotypes. This approach would be analogous to what has been accomplished in the assessment of determinants of myocardial contractility,42 43 hypertension,44 and hypertrophy45 and will be advanced further by the use of conditional and tissue-specific knockouts of cardiac genes via Cre-lox technology for homologous recombination.46 The expression of mutated ion channels, which could include those of the LQTS type, may ultimately allow the generation of models with macroelectrophysiological properties, which could have applications beyond the consideration of LQTS per se. The analysis of mouse models resulting from the specific genetic manipulation of ion channels could then be compared with electrophysiological phenotypes arising in transgenic and gene-targeted mice having characteristics of structural cardiac disease, eg, hypertrophy and cardiomyopathy.45 47 48 49 However, general application of these approaches will first require establishing that the mouse has fidelity to other mammalian systems. It is already well established that individual ion channel expression and integrated whole organ electrophysiology is highly species-dependent, and the mouse may also provide specific technical problems, such as basal heart rates in excess of 350 beats per minute, that will complicate experimental analysis. We would, however, confidently envision that such hurdles are likely to be surmounted, as has been the case for other complex cardiovascular phenotypes.43 45 50
| Conclusions |
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| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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| References |
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