Aborted cardiac arrest in a patient carrying KCNE1 D85N variant during the postpartum period

Tadashi Nakajima1, Yoshiaki Kaneko, Mamoru Manita

  • 1Department of Medicine and Biological Science, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan. tnakajim@med.gunma-u.ac.jp

The postpartum period is associated with an increased risk of fatal ventricular tachyarrhythmias in patients with congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS). We describe a 20-year-old female with LQTS who experienced aborted cardiac arrest during the postpartum period. Genetic screening identified a KCNE1 D85N variant, which has been reported to be a LQTS-causing gene variant, in the patient and her younger sister, whose QT interval was also prolonged. Since the allele frequency of this variant is almost 1%, it may be important to clarify whether such variant carriers indeed have an increased risk of fatal ventricular tachyarrhythmias during the postpartum period.

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