title: Ventricular repolarization markers for predicting malignant arrhythmias in clinical practice.
abstract: Malignant cardiac arrhythmias which result in sudden cardiac death may be present in individuals apparently healthy or be associated with other medical conditions. The way to predict their appearance represents a challenge for the medical community due to the tragic outcomes in most cases. In the last two decades some ventricular repolarization (VR) markers have been found to be useful to predict malignant cardiac arrhythmias in several clinical conditions. The corrected QT, QT dispersion, Tpeak-Tend, Tpeak-Tend dispersion and Tp-e/QT have been studied and implemented in clinical practice for this purpose. These markers are obtained from 12 lead surface electrocardiogram. In this review we discuss how these markers have demonstrated to be effective to predict malignant arrhythmias in medical conditions such as long and short QT syndromes, Brugada syndrome, early repolarization syndrome, acute myocardial ischemia, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity and highly trained athletes. Also the main pathophysiological mechanisms that explain the arrhythmogenic predisposition in these diseases and the basis for the VR markers are discussed. However, the same results have not been found in all conditions. Further studies are needed to reach a global consensus in order to incorporate these VR parameters in risk stratification of these patients.
authors: Yaniel Castro-Torres, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Ciencias Médicas Dr. Serafín Ruiz de Zárate Ruiz, Santa Clara 50200, Villa Clara, Cuba.
authors: Yaniel
authors: Y
authors: Castro-Torres
authors: Yaniel Castro-Torres, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Ciencias Médicas Dr. Serafín Ruiz de Zárate Ruiz, Santa Clara 50200, Villa Clara, Cuba.
authors: Raimundo
authors: R
authors: Carmona-Puerta
authors: Yaniel Castro-Torres, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Ciencias Médicas Dr. Serafín Ruiz de Zárate Ruiz, Santa Clara 50200, Villa Clara, Cuba.
authors: Richard E
authors: RE
authors: Katholi
keywords: Corrected QT interval; Electrocardiographic predictor; QT dispersion; QT interval; Sudden cardiac death; Tpeak-Tend QT ratio; Tpeak-Tend interval; Ventricular fibrillation; Ventricular repolarization markers