title: Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and occurrence of heart arrhythmia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Subjects with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) do not generally suffer from significant cardiac symptoms. Although with heterogeneous results, studies reported to date indicate that heart alterations unrelated to cardiomyopathy are possible in FSHD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe the findings of a multicenter investigation aimed at detecting cardiac abnormalities in 83 FSHD patients, 44 males and 39 females with a mean age of 47 years. All patients underwent clinical heart examination, 12-lead electrocardiography and 24-hour Holter monitoring; echocardiography was also performed on most patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 83 patients, 62 with no cardiovascular risk factors were identified. Ten of them manifested clinical or subclinical cardiac involvement: 5 reported symptoms represented mostly by frequent palpitations secondary to supraventricular arrhythmia and another 5 exhibited electrocardiographic signs of short runs of supraventricular paroxysmal tachycardia. In the absence of cardiovascular risk factors, we found symptoms or signs of heart involvement of mainly arrhythmic origin in 10 of our 83 FSHD patients (12%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering our data and those available in the literature as a whole, arrhythmic alterations seem to be detected more frequently than expected in FSHD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy. carlopietro.trevisan@unipd.it
authors.forename: Carlo Pietro
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Trevisan
authors.forename: Ebe
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pastorello
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Armani
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Angelini
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nante
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tomelleri
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tonin
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mongini
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palmucci
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Galluzzi
authors.forename: Rossella G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Tupler
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barchitta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods; D020391:Muscular Dystrophy, Facioscapulohumeral / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index