Anyone See Primetime Last Night?

[Stace915]

I was doing something on the computer last nite and 1/2 paying attention to the tv, all the sudden I heard something about beat blockers, so I started listening. It was about something called Long QT syndrome. Has anyone heard of this better. It sounds sooo similar to dysautonomia but it can be deadly and it freaked me out. I just found the link from the show http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthology/story?id=729251 but I am wondering if anyone else has more info, or knows how they tell the difference between that and pots.

[Dizzy Dame]

From my understanding, long QT is also known as "sudden death", it's an arrythmia (sp) that can stop the heart, indicated by having a long QT on an EKG. Unless you've been diagnosed with a long QT, you really shouldn't worry.

- L

[Guest Belinda]

Long Qt from what I have heard(don't qutoe me on it) usually runs in families and they will pick it up on an EKG and it is usually something your born with..

At any rate I wouldn't worry about it too much...your cardiologist or doc would be concerned about it and you wold have it corrrected or have a defribillator implant.

Bee

[Meliss446]

I saw this last night. The scary part was that the girl who had died had EKGs that all were deemed normal. In fact, see had one like a few days or so before she died, and the doctor said it was normal. When the parents took that same EKG to a specialist in Long QT syndrome though, he said that he could see the long QT interval. I think that it just goes to show that you need to have a skilled doctor read your test results. But like the others said, most doctors should be able to pick it up and it does run in families.

[Clairefmartin]

i saw this too, and it was kinda scary for the reasons Meliss stated.

[JaneEyre9]

Long QT means that you have a longer than normal time interval between the Q and the T on your ECG. It is not the same as sudden death, but it can put you at risk for dangerous arrhythmias...the one in particular is called "torsade de pointes. " (which is quite different from the sinus tachycardia that POTS patients suffer)

Long QT can be inherrited or it can be caused by certain drugs. What happens is that the drug or genetic mutation affects the ion channels in your heart cells causing them to take a longer time to return to electrical baseline after each beat. An electrophysiologist would be a great doc to see if you are afraid you have this problem due to a drug or family history. They specialize in recognizing and treating disorders like these.

[Guest Julia59]

Here is a few links to help you learn more about long QT wave.

One of them shows what drugs to avoid to PREVENT getting long QT wave.http://www.arabmedmag.com/issue-31-01-2004...logy/main02.htm

http://www.qtdrugs.org/medical-pros/drug-l...drug-lists.cfm#

http://www.genaissance.com/pharmacogenomic...qt_syndrome.asp

http://www.sads.org/

Julie :0)

[Miriam Poorman-Knox]

I have this, my docs changed my meds to see if my numbeers were better. No. Indeed it can cause sudden cardiac death, usually other things are involved. When you have an EKG ask what your QT wave is and have your doc explain. My sister died in Dec from this and in my case it is genetic. But no one is going to scare me from living, I say this as I go to Seattle for 5 weeks to care for my 2 grandsons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best advice is to check whatthe # is on your EKG............ Miriam