Postmortem mRNA Expression Patterns in Left Ventricular Myocardial Tissues and Their Implications for Forensic Diagnosis of Sudden Cardiac Death

Sudden cardiac death (SCD), which is primarily caused by lethal heart disorders resulting in structural and arrhythmogenic abnormalities, is one of the prevalent modes of death in most developed countries. Myocardial ischemia, mainly due to coronary artery disease, is the most common type of heart disease leading to SCD. However, postmortem diagnosis of SCD is frequently complicated by obscure histological evidence. Here, we show that certain mRNA species, namely those encoding hemoglobin A1/2 and B (Hba1/2 and Hbb, respectively) as well as pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (Pdk4), exhibit distinct postmortem expression patterns in the left ventricular free wall of SCD subjects when compared with their expression patterns in the corresponding tissues from control subjects with non-cardiac causes of death. Hba1/2 and Hbb mRNA expression levels were higher in ischemic SCD cases with acute myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease without recent infarction, and even in cardiac death subjects without apparent pathological signs of heart injuries, than control subjects. By contrast, Pdk4 mRNA was expressed at lower levels in SCD subjects. In conclusion, we found that altered myocardial Hba1/2, Hbb, and Pdk4 mRNA expression patterns can be employed as molecular signatures of fatal cardiac dysfunction to forensically implicate SCD as the primary cause of death.     

Ergonovine-Provoked Esophageal Spasm During Coronary Angiography

In many patients with chest pain of esophageal origin, findings are normal on routine esophageal manometry and dysmotility develops only upon provocation with ergonovine maleate. Unfortunately, ergonovine may induce myocardial ischemia in patients in whom coronary artery spasm did not occur during previous provocative testing in a cardiac laboratory—limiting its clinical usefulness. We have recorded esophageal pressure simultaneously with ergonovine infusion during angiography in ten patients without significant arterial stenoses. In two patients their usual chest pain developed associated with esophageal spasm and without changes in coronary vessels. Simultaneous performance of angiography and manometry enhanced the diagnostic yield of provocative testing by showing esophageal motility changes. This method may detect significant changes in the esophageal motility, is easy to carry out and does not interfere with angiography. It maximizes the information gained from a single provocative test and avoids the risk of ergonovine infusion outside of a cardiac laboratory.     

The Dutch experience of open access echocardiography

Cardiac disease is not easy to recognise in general practice. An echocardiogram is an excellent way to provide information about left ventricular mass and diastolic (dys)function and the presence of valvular heart disease. To improve diagnostic care of cardiac patients, an open access echocardiography service was established in the referral area of our hospital, where general practitioners were able to ask for an echocardiogram without referring the patient to the cardiologist. Between December 2002 and October 2006 echocardiograms were requested for 471 patients. Thirteen percent of the patients referred for dyspnoea and 3% of patients with a cardiac murmur had a left ventricular ejection fraction <40%. In 28% of patients no cardiac abnormality could be found. If we looked at the prevalence of hypertension in the referred patients, this was very high with a prevalence of up to 60% in the older age groups. If we included hypertension in the analysis, only 16% of patients had no structural cardiac or vascular abnormality. The study shows that the advantage of open access echocardiography in the Netherlands is that the general practitioner is able to make a better diagnosis and unnecessary referrals of patients with suspected cardiac disease can be avoided. (Neth Heart J 2007;15:432-7.)     

Implantable cardioverter defibrillator: an update

Automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator is now a well established therapy to prevent sudden cardiac death. In secondary prevention (patients with a previous cardiac arrest) defibrillator can be considered as a class I indication, if there is no transient or reversible cause. The level of proof is A. in primary prevention the defibrillator is indicated in coronary artery disease patients with or without symptoms of mild to moderate heart failure (NYHA II or III), an ejection fraction lower than 30 %, measured at least one month after a myocardial infarction and 3 months after a revascularisation, surgery or angioplasty (level of proof B). It is also indicated in symptomatic spontaneous sustained ventricular tachycardias with underlying heart disease (level of proof B), in patients with spontaneous sustained ventricular tachycardia, poorly tolerated, without underlying heart disease for which pharmacological treatment or ablation can not be performed or failed (level of proof B). Finally it is also indicated in patients with syncope of unknown cause with sustained ventricular tachycardia or inducible ventricular fibrillation, with an underlying heart disease (level of proof B). The guidelines proposed by the different societies have also proposed class IIa recommendations which are the following: coronary artery disease patients with left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction between 31 or 35 %) measured at least one month after a myocardial infarction and 3 months after a revascularisation with an inducible ventricular arrhythmia. It can be also indicated in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathies with an ejection fraction lower than 30% and NYHA class II or III. It can be also indicated in familial or inherited conditions with a high risk of sudden cardiac death by ventricular fibrillation without any other efficient known treatment and finally in heart failure patients remaining symptomatic, in class III or IV NYHA, with an optimal medical therapy, an ejection fraction lower than 35 % and a QRS complex duration higher than 120 ms: in this case it is an indication of cardiac resynchronization therapy device associated to the defibrillator. All these class IIa indications have a level of proof B.     

HDL-C及其亚型与冠心病患者预后关系的相关性研究

目的:探讨高密度脂蛋白胆固醇(HDL-C)及其亚型与冠心病患者预后的关系。方法:选取2012年6月~2015年12月在我院检查的371例疑似冠心病患者为研究对象,其中确诊为冠心病患者274例为观察组,冠状动脉检查正常者97例为对照组。对两组患者的血脂指标进行检测,同时分析各终点事件与血脂各指标之间的相关性,并采用COX回归分析探讨HDL-C及其亚型与冠心病患者预后的关系。结果:与正常组比较,冠心病患者总胆固醇、低密度脂蛋白胆固醇等指标显著升高,而高密度脂蛋白胆固醇及其亚型HDL2-C显著降低。这种改变随冠状动脉病变支数的增加而更加显著。COX回归分析显示HDL2-C亚型与患者心源性死亡的发生风险存在一定的相关性。结论:HDL2-C亚型与冠心病的发生、发展,患者病变程度存在显著的相关性,可以用作对冠心病患者病情程度和终点事件预测的重要参考指标。     

Relation of low diastolic blood pressure to coronary heart disease death in presence of myocardial infarction: the Framingham Study.

OBJECTIVE--To examine the hypothesis that a J curve relation between blood pressure and death from coronary heart disease is confined to high risk subjects with myocardial infarction. DESIGN--Cohort longitudinal epidemiological study with biennial examinations since 1950. SETTING--Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. SUBJECTS--5209 subjects in the Framingham study cohort followed up by a person examination approach. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Coronary heart disease deaths and non-cardiovascular disease deaths in men and women with or without myocardial infarction relative to blood pressure. RESULTS--Among subjects without myocardial infarction non-cardiovascular disease deaths were twice to three times as common as coronary heart disease deaths. Furthermore, there was no significant relation between non-cardiovascular disease death and diastolic or systolic blood pressure. Also coronary heart disease deaths were linearly related to diastolic and systolic blood pressures. Among high risk patients (that is, people with myocardial infarction but free of congestive heart failure) death from coronary heart disease was more common than non-cardiovascular disease death. There was a significant U shaped relation between coronary heart disease death and diastolic blood pressure. Although there was an apparent U shaped relation between coronary heart disease death and systolic blood pressure, it did not attain statistical significance when controlling for age and change in systolic blood pressure from the pre-myocardial infarction level. None of the above conclusions changed when adjustments were made for risk factors such as serum cholesterol concentration, antihypertensive treatment, and left ventricular function. The U shaped relation between diastolic blood pressure and high risk subjects existed for both those given antihypertensive treatment and those not. CONCLUSIONS--These data suggest that an age and sex independent U curve relation exists for diastolic blood pressure and coronary heart disease deaths in patients with myocardial infarction but not for low risk subjects without myocardial infarction. The relation seems to be independent of left ventricular function and antihypertensive treatment.     

心脏收缩时间间期与冠状动脉狭窄程度或范围的相关性研究

心脏收缩时间间期(STI)通过单笔心电图机叠加记录ECG、心音图和颈动脉图后测得。对83例患者进行了STI均值与选择性冠状动脉造影(CAG)及左室造影的相关研究。患者除陈旧性心肌梗塞及室壁瘤外,根据冠状动脉(CA)狭窄程度而分组。STI随CA狭窄程度及范围的增加而显著异常,提示心功能随心肌缺血程度加重而进行性恶化。左室射血分数(LVEF)的降低也支持这一点。CA狭窄程度、范围与射血前时间/左室射血时间(PEP/LVET)呈正相关。在决定左室功能的异常方面,PEP/LVET和LVEF的临床意义完全相同。提示STI在评价冠心病心功能上是有用的。排除影响STI的某些因素后,PEP/LVET≥0.38可作为判断冠心病左心功能减退的标志。但轻度CA狭窄患者的STI可正常,这可能与静息时尚有足够的CA贮备力有关。     

Occult aortic stenosis as cause of intractable heart failure

During a three-year period 10 patients with critical aortic stenosis were referred to a cardiac referral centre with symptoms and signs of intractable cardiac failure and low cardiac output. In nine patients the correct diagnosis was not suspected at the referring hospital, and in the remaining patient the true severity of the aortic stenosis was not appreciated and cardiomyopathy was suggested as an additional diagnosis. The most common referral diagnoses were severe mitral regurgitation (four patients), congestive cardiomyopathy (two patients), or both (three patients). Only two patients had soft ejection systolic murmurs at the base of the heart radiating into the neck, and such a murmur appeared in a third patient during medical treatment. The carotid pulses were of small volume but the characteristic slow-rising, anacrotic nature of the pulse could not be appreciated clinically. The diagnosis was suspected in nine patients because of aortic valve calcification detected by lateral chest x-ray examination in seven patients and by x-ray screening of the heart in two, and because of abnormal aortic valve echoes in the echocardiogram of all five patients in whom the aortic valve could be seen. Eight patients underwent aortic valve replacement despite seemingly poor preoperative left ventricular function. Three patients died, of whom two had severe coexistent coronary artery disease. The five survivors all returned to normal lives and needed little or no medication.Critical aortic stenosis should be actively sought in patients with severe heart failure of unknown cause since surgery may enable them to resume their normal lives.     

Specification of the mouse cardiac conduction system in the absence of Endothelin signaling

Coordinated contraction of the heart is essential for survival and is regulated by the cardiac conduction system. Contraction of ventricular myocytes is controlled by the terminal part of the conduction system known as the Purkinje fiber network. Lineage analyses in chickens and mice have established that the Purkinje fibers of the peripheral ventricular conduction system arise from working myocytes during cardiac development. It has been proposed, based primarily on gain-of-function studies, that Endothelin signaling is responsible for myocyte-to-Purkinje fiber transdifferentiation during avian heart development. However, the role of Endothelin signaling in mammalian conduction system development is less clear, and the development of the cardiac conduction system in mice lacking Endothelin signaling has not been previously addressed. Here, we assessed the specification of the cardiac conduction system in mouse embryos lacking all Endothelin signaling. We found that mouse embryos that were homozygous null for both ednra and ednrb, the genes encoding the two Endothelin receptors in mice, were born at predicted Mendelian frequency and had normal specification of the cardiac conduction system and apparently normal electrocardiograms with normal QRS intervals. In addition, we found that ednra expression within the heart was restricted to the myocardium while ednrb expression in the heart was restricted to the endocardium and coronary endothelium. By establishing that ednra and ednrb are expressed in distinct compartments within the developing mammalian heart and that Endothelin signaling is dispensable for specification and function of the cardiac conduction system, this work has important implications for our understanding of mammalian cardiac development.     

Patient-specific Modeling of the Heart: Estimation of Ventricular Fiber Orientations

Patient-specific simulations of heart (dys)function aimed at personalizing cardiac therapy are hampered by the absence of in vivo imaging technology for clinically acquiring myocardial fiber orientations. The objective of this project was to develop a methodology to estimate cardiac fiber orientations from in vivo images of patient heart geometries. An accurate representation of ventricular geometry and fiber orientations was reconstructed, respectively, from high-resolution ex vivo structural magnetic resonance (MR) and diffusion tensor (DT) MR images of a normal human heart, referred to as the atlas. Ventricular geometry of a patient heart was extracted, via semiautomatic segmentation, from an in vivo computed tomography (CT) image. Using image transformation algorithms, the atlas ventricular geometry was deformed to match that of the patient. Finally, the deformation field was applied to the atlas fiber orientations to obtain an estimate of patient fiber orientations. The accuracy of the fiber estimates was assessed using six normal and three failing canine hearts. The mean absolute difference between inclination angles of acquired and estimated fiber orientations was 15.4 °. Computational simulations of ventricular activation maps and pseudo-ECGs in sinus rhythm and ventricular tachycardia indicated that there are no significant differences between estimated and acquired fiber orientations at a clinically observable level.The new insights obtained from the project will pave the way for the development of patient-specific models of the heart that can aid physicians in personalized diagnosis and decisions regarding electrophysiological interventions.     

Long-term outcomes of a Caucasian cohort presenting with acute coronary syndrome and/or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest caused by coronary spasm

Background

Coronary artery spasm may be the underlying mechanism in up to 10% of cases of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and sudden cardiac death. Asian individuals exhibit a 3-times greater incidence of spasm than Caucasians; this is likely due to different types of mechanisms. Consequently, solid data is limited about the long-term prognosis in Caucasian patients presenting with ACS and/or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) caused by coronary spasm.

Methods

Between 2002 and 2015, thirty Caucasian patients with coronary artery spasm presenting with ACS (N = 29) and/or OHCA (N = 11) were enrolled in this prospective registry. Follow-up, consisting of regular outpatient visits, was conducted with a mean follow-up period of 7.5 ± 3.3 years. Outcomes included presence of stable angina pectoris, recurrence of ACS, occurrence of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks and death.

Results

The majority of patients (60%) remained asymptomatic during the entire follow-up period. At the end of the follow-up period only 3 patients still experienced stable angina (10%). Only 2 patients (7%) had a recurrent cardiac event, in which the ICD provided appropriate shock therapy. Half of the patients treated with stenting (N = 6), required re-interventions.

Conclusion

Coronary spasm with ACS and/or OHCA in a Caucasian patient cohort has a relatively benign prognosis in the majority of patients in long-term follow-up, if treated appropriately with medical therapy. Both the role of ICD in OHCA secondary to coronary spasm, and the efficacy of stenting to treat vasospastic angina, warrant further study in large-sized prospective clinical trials.

     

不同动脉途径行经皮冠状动脉介入治疗高龄冠心病的临床疗效观察

目的:探讨不同动脉途径行经皮冠状动脉介入治疗高龄冠心病的临床疗效和安全性。方法:选取2014年1月～2017年1月我院收治的265例高龄冠心病患者为研究对象,根据就诊顺序将受试者分为对照组132例及研究组133例,对照组患者给予股动脉途径(TFI)行经皮冠状动脉介入治疗,研究组患者给予桡动脉途径(TRI)行经皮冠状动脉介入治疗,比较两组患者的手术情况、手术前后各心功能指标变化、心血管不良事件及并发症的发生情况。结果:两组患者的手术成功率、支架数量、造影剂用量比较差异无统计学意义(P0.05),但研究组患者动脉穿刺时间、导管插入时间及X线曝光时间均长于对照组,卧床时间及住院时间均明显短于对照组(P0.05)。治疗后,两组患者的左心射血分数(LVEF)、左室收缩末期内径(LVESD)及左室舒张末期内径(LVEDD)较治疗前均明显改善,且研究组优于对照组(P0.05),研究组患者心血管不良事件发生率及各并发症发生率均显著低于对照组(P0.05)。结论:TRI与TFI在经皮冠状动脉介入术治疗高龄冠心病患者的手术效果相当,但TRI在改善患者心功能、减少心血管不良事件的效果更好且安全性更高,可做为高龄冠心病患者PCI治疗的首选途径。     

Permanent Ligation of the Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery in Mice: A Model of Post-myocardial Infarction Remodelling and Heart Failure

Heart failure is a syndrome in which the heart fails to pump blood at a rate commensurate with cellular oxygen requirements at rest or during stress. It is characterized by fluid retention, shortness of breath, and fatigue, in particular on exertion. Heart failure is a growing public health problem, the leading cause of hospitalization, and a major cause of mortality. Ischemic heart disease is the main cause of heart failure.Ventricular remodelling refers to changes in structure, size, and shape of the left ventricle. This architectural remodelling of the left ventricle is induced by injury (e.g., myocardial infarction), by pressure overload (e.g., systemic arterial hypertension or aortic stenosis), or by volume overload. Since ventricular remodelling affects wall stress, it has a profound impact on cardiac function and on the development of heart failure. A model of permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery in mice is used to investigate ventricular remodelling and cardiac function post-myocardial infarction. This model is fundamentally different in terms of objectives and pathophysiological relevance compared to the model of transient ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. In this latter model of ischemia/reperfusion injury, the initial extent of the infarct may be modulated by factors that affect myocardial salvage following reperfusion. In contrast, the infarct area at 24 hr after permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery is fixed. Cardiac function in this model will be affected by 1) the process of infarct expansion, infarct healing, and scar formation; and 2) the concomitant development of left ventricular dilatation, cardiac hypertrophy, and ventricular remodelling.Besides the model of permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery, the technique of invasive hemodynamic measurements in mice is presented in detail.     

超声检测左心室舒张功能的临床意义——85例超声检测结果与冠状动脉造影的对照分析

目的超声心动图检测左心室舒张功能与冠状动脉造影对照分析,探讨超声诊断的临床意义。方法85例临床疑诊冠心病超声检查左心室二尖瓣口舒张早、晚期血流充盈速度E、A两峰峰值,计算E/A比值,其结果分为舒张功能正常和降低两组。全部病人均与冠状动脉造影结果对照分析。结果超声检测左心室舒张功能与冠脉造影均正常24例,均异常53例,共77例,符合率90.59%,不符合8例,占9.41%;本文依据冠脉造影提出超声检测左心室舒张功能正常值;并发现冠心病早期舒张功能降低,且随年龄与病程长短不同。结论超声检测左心室舒张功能的改变与冠脉造影符合率高,舒张功能于冠心病早期可降低,随病程长短不同,为临床对冠心病诊治和预防提供有价值的信息。     

Cold pressor test in diagnosis of coronary artery disease: echophonocardiographic method.

The cold pressor test was used to induce myocardial ischaemia in patients with coronary artery disease and the rise in left ventricular filling pressure used as the index of myocardial ischaemia. Left ventricular filling pressure was derived from a non-invasive echophonocardiographic method. A study group of 19 consecutive patients with chest pain underwent the cold pressor test before coronary angiography. Eighteen responded with a rise in filling pressure exceeding 30% and, of these, 17 had serious coronary artery disease (three single vessel, one two vessel, and 13 triple vessel disease; one had coronary artery spasm only). The remaining patient, who showed no rise in filling pressure, did not have coronary artery disease. None of 15 normal controls showed a rise greater than 5% (patients with coronary artery disease versus normal controls p less than 0.001). The cold pressor test would be suitable for patients who cannot or should not exercise and may be combined with exercise electrocardiograms to improve the information content, as it uses a different marker of myocardial ischaemia.     

Why and how to support screening strategies to prevent sudden death in athletes

Sudden death in athletes occurs because of the existence of hidden cardiovascular disorders which, during effort, may jeopardize the electrical stability of the heart, triggering ventricular tachycardia and/or fibrillation. Apart from rare conditions of ion channel diseases in the setting of a structurally normal heart, in which the disorder may be easily diagnosed on basal or stress test ECG, cardiac abnormalities at risk of causing sudden death may affect the aorta (Marfan syndrome), the coronary arteries (congenital coronary artery anomalies, premature coronary atherosclerosis), the myocardium (hypertrophic and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy), the valves (bicuspid aortic valve, mitral valve prolapse) and the conduction system (pre-excitation syndromes). These structural heart disorders may be detected by ECG and/or echo. The employment of these tools at pre-participation screening can help to identify concealed anomalies, which may play a major role in early diagnosis, risk stratification, and prevention of sudden death.     

Home-based exercise rehabilitation in addition to specialist heart failure nurse care: design, rationale and recruitment to the Birmingham Rehabilitation Uptake Maximisation study for patients with congestive heart failure (BRUM-CHF): a randomised controlled trial

Background

We aimed to assess whether we could identify a graded association between increasing number of components of the metabolic syndrome and cardiac structural and functional abnormalities independently of predicted risk of coronary heart disease by the Framingham risk score.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study on a random sample of the urban population of Porto aged 45 years or over. Six hundred and eighty-four participants were included. Data were collected by a structured clinical interview with a physician, ECG and a transthoracic M-mode and 2D echocardiogram. The metabolic syndrome was defined according to ATPIII-NCEP. The association between the number of features of the metabolic syndrome and the cardiac structural and functional abnormalities was assessed by 3 multivariate regression models: adjusting for age and gender, adjusting for the 10-year predicted risk of coronary heart disease by Framingham risk score and adjusting for age, gender and systolic blood pressure.

Results

There was a positive association between the number of features of metabolic syndrome and parameters of cardiac structure and function, with a consistent and statistically significant trend for all cardiac variables considered when adjusting for age and gender. Parameters of left ventricular geometry patterns, left atrial diameter and diastolic dysfunction maintained this trend when taking into account the 10-year predicted risk of coronary heart disease by the Framingham score as an independent variable, while left ventricular systolic dysfunction did not. The prevalence of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and the mean left ventricular mass, left ventricular diameter and left atrial diameter increased significantly with the number of features of the metabolic syndrome when additionally adjusting for systolic blood pressure as a continuous variable.

Conclusion

Increasing severity of metabolic syndrome was associated with increasingly compromised structure and function of the heart. This association was independent of Framingham risk score for indirect indices of diastolic dysfunction but not systolic dysfunction, and was not explained by blood pressure level.     

2型糖尿病合并冠心病患者血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3与糖脂代谢、胰岛素抵抗和心功能的相关性分析

摘要 目的：探讨2型糖尿病（T2DM）合并冠心病患者血清白介素-6（IL-6）、降钙素原（PCT）、组织蛋白酶S（CatS）、半乳糖凝集素3（Gal-3）与糖脂代谢、胰岛素抵抗和心功能的相关性。方法：选择我院2019年2月～2021年2月收治的102例T2DM患者,将其根据是否伴有冠心病分成单纯T2DM组（n=62）和T2DM合并冠心病组（n=40）。另取同期健康体检人员50例作为对照组。比较三组血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3水平。对比单纯T2DM组与T2DM合并冠心病组间糖脂代谢、胰岛素抵抗和心功能指标差异,并分析血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3与上述指标的相关性。结果：单纯T2DM组、T2DM合并冠心病组的血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3水平均高于对照组,且T2DM合并冠心病组上述各项指标水平均高于单纯T2DM组（P＜0.05）。T2DM合并冠心病组空腹血糖（FPG）、低密度脂蛋白胆固醇（LDL-C）水平以及胰岛素抵抗指数（HOMA-IR）均高于单纯T2DM组（P＜0.05）,而两组间餐后2 h血糖（2hPG）、糖化血红蛋白（HbA1c）、甘油三酯（TG）、总胆固醇（TC）、高密度脂蛋白胆固醇（HDL-C）、空腹胰岛素（FINS）水平比较无统计学差异（P>0.05）。T2DM合并冠心病组左心室射血分数（LVEF）、左心室收缩末期容积（LVESV）及左心室舒张末期容积（LVEDV）均低于单纯T2DM组（P＜0.05）。Pearson相关性分析结果显示：T2DM合并冠心病患者的血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3水平与LDL-C水平、HOMA-IR均呈正相关,而与LVEF、LVESV、LVEDV均呈负相关（P＜0.05）。结论：T2DM合并冠心病患者血清IL-6、PCT、CatS、Gal-3水平呈异常高表达,且和糖脂代谢、胰岛素抵抗和心功能密切相关,对患者病情具有一定辅助评估价值。     

May fever trigger ventricular fibrillation?

The clinical precipitants of ventricular fibrillation (VF) remain poorly understood. Clinical factors such as hypoxemia, acidosis or electrolyte imbalance, drug-related toxicity, autonomic nervous system disorders as well as viral myocarditis have been proposed to be associated with sudden cardiac death particularly in patients with structural heart disease. However, In the Brugada syndrome, concurrent febrile illness has been reported to unmask the electrocardiographic features of the Brugada syndrome and be associated with an increased propensity for VF. More recently, a febrile illnesses of infectious etiology was associated to polymorphic ventricular tachycardia or VF in patients with normal hearts and without known repolarization abnormality. In this review we detail this phenomenon and its putative mechanisms.     

心率减速力及连续心率减速力对冠心病心脏性猝死的预警价值

目的：通过心率减速力（DC）及连续心率减速力（DRs）检测技术对老年冠心病患者进行风险分层,探讨其对心脏性猝死的预警价值。方法：随机选择经冠状动脉造影（CAG）确诊为冠心病（CHD）的患者218例作为观察组,其中隐匿性CHD 55例,急性心肌梗死（AMI）56例,心绞痛（AP）53例,缺血性心力衰竭（IHF）54例。同期选取在本院进行健康体检者55例（对照组）,对各组患者行24 h动态心电图检查,应用软件系统分析并计算出DC值及DRs值进行统计分析。结果：CHD各亚组（AMI组、AP组、IHF组、隐匿性CHD组）的DC值及DRs值均明显降低,与正常组比较,差异有统计学意义（P < 0.01）;DC值与DRs值所提示CAD各亚组的危险分级明显高于正常组,差异有统计学意义（P < 0.01）;冠状动脉造影显示冠脉病变数量越多范围越大,病情越重,这与DC、DRs所提示CHD各亚组的危险分级相一致。结论：心率减速力和连续心率减速力能够测定分析迷走神经功能,对冠心病患者进行危险分级,对高危人群有较高的预警价值,可作为预警冠心病患者发生心脏性猝死的敏感指标。