Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Gen Hosp Psychiatry 2022 Jun 22;78:14-27. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Objective: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about lamotrigine's arrhythmogenicity based on in vitro data. This systematic review investigates lamotrigine's effect on cardiac conduction and risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in individuals with and without cardiovascular disease.

Methods: We searched Web of Science and PubMed from inception through August 2021. Read More

JACC Clin Electrophysiol 2022 Jun;8(6):806-821

Center for Cardiovascular Innovation, Heart Rhythm Services, Division of Cardiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Victorian Heart Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

Inherited arrhythmia syndromes are a common cause of apparently unexplained cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death. These include long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome, with a well-recognized phenotype in most patients with sufficiently severe disease to lead to cardiac arrest. Less common and typically less apparent conditions that may not be readily evident include catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, short QT syndrome and early repolarization syndrome. Read More

Heart Rhythm O2 2022 Jun 8;3(3):233-240. Epub 2022 Feb 8.

Electrophysiology Section, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Background: The type 1 electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern diagnostic of Brugada syndrome (BrS) can be dynamic. Limited studies have rigorously evaluated the temporal stability of the Brugada ECG pattern.

Objective: We sought to evaluate fluctuations of the Brugada pattern in serial resting ECGs from BrS patients managed within a large health care system. Read More

Eur Heart J 2022 Jun 21. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias of Genetic Origin and Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics, Milan, Italy.

Many previously unexplained life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) in young individuals are now recognized to be genetic in nature and are ascribed to a growing number of distinct inherited arrhythmogenic diseases. These include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT), and short QT syndrome. Because of their lower frequency compared to coronary disease, risk factors for SCD are not very precise in patients with inherited arrhythmogenic diseases. Read More

Case Rep Cardiol 2022 8;2022:9226861. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Department of Cardiovascular Services, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Huntington, WV, USA.

Brugada syndrome is a known cause of dysrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. It is linked to mutations in myocardial sodium channel leading to hyperexcitable cardiac myocytes. The use of this sedative has been linked to the development of inducible Brugada via blockade of sodium currents in cardiac myocytes. Read More

Clin Sports Med 2022 Jul;41(3):485-510

Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia, 1215 Lee St, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA. Electronic address:

Provide a brief summary of your article (100-150 words; no references or figures/tables). The synopsis appears only in the table of contents and is often used by indexing services such as PubMed. Genetic arrhythmia syndromes are rare, yet harbor the potential for highly consequential, often unpredictable arrhythmias or sudden death events. Read More

J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol 2022 Jun 13. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.

Background: Fever is a potential side effect of the Covid-19 vaccination. Patients with Brugada syndrome (BrS) have an increased risk of life-threatening arrhythmias when experiencing fever. Prompt treatment with antipyretic drugs is suggested in these patients. Read More

Eur Heart J Case Rep 2022 Jun 6;6(6):ytac200. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, 5777 East Mayo Boulevard, Phoenix, AZ 85054, USA.

Background: Fever, alcohol, and sodium channel blockers can unmask Brugada pattern and may also induce arrhythmias in Brugada syndrome. We report a case of unmasked Type-1 Brugada pattern presenting with ventricular fibrillation that was induced by a tetrahydrocannabinol vaping.

Case Summary: A 48-year-old male with a past medical history of hypertension treated with hydrochlorothiazide and back pain controlled with tetrahydrocannabinol vaping presented with sudden cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation, which was terminated with defibrillation. Read More

Heart Rhythm 2022 Jun 7. Epub 2022 Jun 7.

IHU LIRYC, Electrophysiology and Heart Modeling Institute, Bordeaux, France; University of Bordeaux, IMB, CNRS, Bordeaux, France.

J Coll Physicians Surg Pak 2022 Jun;32(6):804-807

Department of Emergency Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.

A 13-year male patient with a history of tachycardia attacks was diagnosed to have left posterior fascicular ventricular tachycardia (VT) according to the electrocardiogram (ECG) obtained at the emergency service. This diagnosis was confirmed with advanced electrophysiological studies and the case was diagnosed by genetic evaluation, which was performed to reveal the underlying cause, to have Brugada type 2 syndrome that might be associated with sudden cardiac death. Underlying causes should be evaluated, although idiopathic VTs generally have a good prognosis. Read More

ARYA Atheroscler 2021 Jul;17(4):1-9

Associate Professor, Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

J wave syndrome is an electrical disease of the heart due to pathologic early repolarization. It encompasses a clinical spectrum from aborted sudden cardiac death due to ventricular arrhythmia (VA) usually in young affected patients to self-terminating ventricular ectopies, and finally, asymptomatic relatives of probands detected during electrocardiography acquisition (early repolarization pattern). This syndrome consists of 2 phenotypes, early repolarization and Brugada syndrome. Read More

Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc 2022 Aug 3;41:101066. Epub 2022 Jun 3.

Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.

Background: Pregnancy can trigger or aggravate the risk for life-threating arrhythmias in cardiac diseases. Pregnancy is associated with reluctance for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) due to concerns about radiation. Thus, the wearable cardioverter-defibrillator (WCD) might be an option during pregnancy. Read More

Sci Transl Med 2022 Jun 8;14(648):eabf3136. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a fatal arrhythmia that causes an estimated 4% of all sudden death in high-incidence areas. encodes cardiac sodium channel Na1.5 and causes 25 to 30% of BrS cases. Read More

J Electrocardiol 2022 May 21;73:59-61. Epub 2022 May 21.

Department of Cardiology, Central Japan International Medical Center, Gifu, Japan; Department of Cardiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan; Department of Molecular Pathophysiology, Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-8621, Japan.

We described a type 1 Brugada electrocardiogram and discussed about the potential diagnostic electrocardiographic indicators to differentiate true Brugada syndrome and Brugada phenocopy. Read More

Clin Res Cardiol 2022 Jun 2. Epub 2022 Jun 2.

Department of Cardiology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia.

Bioinformatics 2022 May 31. Epub 2022 May 31.

Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea.

Motivation: The importance of chromatin loops in gene regulation is broadly accepted. There are mainly two approaches to predict chromatin loops: transcription factor (TF) binding-dependent approach and genomic variation-based approach. However, neither of these approaches provides an adequate understanding of gene regulation in human tissues. Read More

PLoS One 2022 26;17(5):e0261390. Epub 2022 May 26.

Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan.

Background: Brugada syndrome (BrS) can be diagnosed by a type 1 BrS tracing in a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). However, there are daily variations in the ECGs of BrS patients, which presents a challenge when diagnosing BrS. Although many susceptibility genes have been identified, the SCN5A gene is reportedly the main causative gene of BrS. Read More

Cureus 2022 Apr 21;14(4):e24338. Epub 2022 Apr 21.

Hospital Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine, Hempstead, USA.

We report a case of a middle-aged man who presented with near syncope, fever, and dysuria and was incidentally found to have coved ST-segment elevations in leads V1 and V2 confirming Brugada type 1 ECG (electrocardiogram) pattern. This ECG pattern morphed into saddleback ST-segment elevations in precordial leads consistent with type 2 Brugada the following day. Additionally, the patient reported a positive family history of sudden cardiac death. Read More

HeartRhythm Case Rep 2022 May 4;8(5):325-329. Epub 2022 Feb 4.

Department of Cardiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.

Cureus 2022 Apr 20;14(4):e24309. Epub 2022 Apr 20.

Cardiology, Rutgers Health/Trinitas Regional Medical Center, Elizabeth, USA.

Cocaine is considered a leading non-opioid cause of drug overdose in the US. It acts as a sympathomimetic and increases the amount of catecholamines, thereby increasing the risk of ventricular irritability and resultant arrhythmias. Its sodium (Na) channel blockage is the principal mechanism behind the Brugada pattern on an electrocardiogram (ECG), which is often transient but is indistinguishable from that of Brugada syndrome, the autosomal dominant channelopathy. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 20;12(1):8530. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

In this work, we reported a computational study to quantitatively determine the individual contributions of three candidate arrhythmic factors associated with Brugada Syndrome. In particular, we focused our analysis on the role of structural abnormalities, dispersion of repolarization, and size of the diseased region. We developed a human phenomenological model capable of replicating the action potential characteristics both in Brugada Syndrome and in healthy conditions. Read More

Heart Rhythm 2022 May 11. Epub 2022 May 11.

Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Texas; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Background: TANGO2 deficiency disorder (TDD) is an autosomal recessive disease associated with metabolic crisis, lethal cardiac arrhythmias, and cardiomyopathy. Data regarding treatment, management, and outcomes of cardiac manifestations of TDD are lacking.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe TDD-related cardiac crises. Read More

Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2022 May 13. Epub 2022 May 13.

Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, USA; email:

Brugada syndrome is a heritable channelopathy characterized by a peculiar electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern and increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death. The arrhythmias originate because of an imbalance between the repolarizing and depolarizing currents that modulate the cardiac action potential. Even if an overt structural cardiomyopathy is not typical of Brugada syndrome, fibrosis and structural changes in the right ventricle contribute to a conduction slowing, which ultimately facilitates ventricular arrhythmias. Read More

Heart Rhythm 2022 May 11. Epub 2022 May 11.

Department of Medicine II, Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan.

Background: The utility of late potentials on signal-averaged electrocardiography (SAECG) for risk stratification in patients with Brugada syndrome (BrS) remains controversial. Late potentials on conventional SAECG with Frank leads may be insufficiently sensitive to detect site-specific late potentials in right precordial leads.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of site-specific late potentials using a novel unipolar Holter-SAECG system for risk stratification in patients with BrS. Read More

Cardiol Res Pract 2022 28;2022:9716045. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Shengli Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350001, China.

Background: Brugada syndrome is a hereditary cardiac disease associated with mutations in ion channel genes. The clinical features include ventricular fibrillation, syncope, and sudden cardiac death. A family with Brugada syndrome with sudden cardiac death was analyzed to locate the associated mutation in the gene. Read More

J Electrocardiol 2022 May-Jun;72:131-137. Epub 2022 Mar 30.

Instituto do Coracao (InCor), Hospital das Clinicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Av. Dr. Enéas de Carvalho Aguiar, 44, AB - CEP 05403-000 São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address:

Background: The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a powerful tool for differential diagnosis among a group of pathologies with different therapeutic approaches/prognoses, the so-called J-wave syndrome. The vectorcardiogram (VCG) can be used as a complementary method to the ECG in several dubious electrocardiographic alterations.

Objective: We carried out a VCG analysis after conceiving and measuring a novel parameter (JT-distance) that allows diagnosis of the Brugada ECG pattern. Read More

Front Cardiovasc Med 2022 14;9:859771. Epub 2022 Apr 14.

Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Background: Multiparametric models have shown better risk stratification in Brugada syndrome. Recently, these models have been validated in different populations.

Aims: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the predictive performance of three validated multiparametric models (Delise model, Sieria model, and Shanghai score). Read More

HeartRhythm Case Rep 2022 Apr 27;8(4):288-291. Epub 2022 Jan 27.

Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Front Genet 2022 13;13:718853. Epub 2022 Apr 13.

Almazov National Medical Research Centre, St Petersburg, Russia.

Genetic variants in the gene, encoding the SUR2 auxiliary subunit from K channels, were previously linked with various inherited diseases. This wide range of congenital disorders includes multisystem and cardiovascular pathologies. The gain-of-function mutations result in Cantu syndrome, acromegaloid facial appearance, hypertrichosis, and acromegaloid facial features. Read More