Walter Duarte MD, Hawa Edriss MD
Cardiac arrest in young healthy adults usually results from undiagnosed structural heart disease or an undiagnosed predisposition to cardiac arrhythmias. We report a 19-year-old man who developed a cardiac arrest while playing golf. He required cardiopulmonary resuscitation on 5 separate occasions and then was treated with targeted temperature management. His initial laboratory tests included hypokalemia (2.5 mmol/L); he also had several episodes of hypoglycemia during his intensive care unit stay. A serum insulin level was within normal limits, but a C-peptide level was increased. He had a long QT interval (QTc-551 ms) after rewarming. Extensive cardiac workup was negative for structural abnormalities. In addition, mutation testing for channelopathies was negative. This patient recovered and has done well. This patient illustrates a case of sudden cardiac death in a young healthy adult who had a long QT syndrome but a negative mutation analysis. These patients might benefit from evaluation in specialized centers which can undertake additional genetic testing.
Keywords: channelopathies, long QT syndrome, sudden death, reactive hypoglycemia
Article citation: Duarte W, Edriss H. Sudden cardiac arrest in a young adult with long QT syndrome and negative mutation studies. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles 2019;7(27):67–71
From: The Departments of Neurology (WD) and Internal Medicine (HE) at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas
Submitted: 11/12/2018
Accepted: 12/23/2018
Reviewer: Pooja Sethi MD, Olusegun Oyenuga MD
Conflicts of interest: none
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