Lucy Patey
Living With long QT syndrome I have always been a fit and active person, participating in many sporting activities – two of which were hockey and horse riding, family passions that I inherited. During my teenage years I competed at top level both on horseback and on the hockey field. Looking back, I was given […]
Lyndsay Morton
Living with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome When I was 19 I was woken by a paramedic at 3am one morning. The paramedic had been called by my partner because I had stopped breathing and started fitting in my sleep. Subsequently I was told that I was “stressed and its nothing to worry about”! I kept getting severe […]
Claire Herridge
Living with left ventricular wall abnormality A year and a half ago, when I was 34, I was out running when I experienced heart palpitations, chest pain and shortness of breath. I was taken by ambulance to Southampton General Hospital. This was a shock to me as I am a PE teacher and have always […]
Jonny Goode
Living with long QT syndrome I love Sport! Any kind of sport and ever since I remember I have spent most of my spare time either hitting a ball, pedalling a bike or running around somewhere. It came as a great shock to me when I was diagnosed with long QT syndrome at the age […]
Fraser Thomas
Living with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy I am one of the few lucky parents as my son, Fraser, survived a full cardiac arrest while playing football last year. He had no previous symptoms or illness and was saved thanks to two medical students who happened to be playing football that day and also a mobile defibrillator that […]
Julia Hubbard
Living with right ventricular outflow tract ventricular tachycardia (RVOT-VT) I have represented Great Britain in Bobsleigh since 2006 and In October 2007 I crashed in a race and sustained fractured vertebrae and tore all the ligaments in my thoracic spine. I was out of the sport for the rest of the season while I recovered […]
Russell Goodman
Living with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and an undiagnosed condition A healthy way to start the weekend, get up Saturday morning and go for a run. This was something my fiancée Charlotte and I enjoy regularly, sick this one however was very different. After being out for just over an hour running the streets […]
Myomectomy
A myomectomy may be recommended if you have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with obstruction to the blood leaving your heart, and your medication is not controlling your symptoms. With this procedure, part of the enlarged septal muscle causing the obstruction is shaved away. A myomectomy usually involves open heart surgery, although it can now also be […]
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC)
The incidence of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is now thought to be higher than previously believed (affecting 1 in every 1000 individuals), due to the availability of better diagnostic techniques and general awareness of the disorder amongst the medical profession. ARVC was first recognised in the late 1970’s. It is anticipated that even more information regarding ARVC will be available in the coming years, to help us understand the natural history of the condition.
Brugada syndrome
In the western world it affects mainly young and middle-aged adult men. It has been associated with mutations in the same sodium channel that is affected in long QT syndrome, but this appears to account for only 1 in every 5 people with the condition. The sodium channel behaves abnormally in that movement of sodium ions into the cells is restricted. This results in particular changes on the ECG but no abnormalities in the structure of the heart. Other genes have been described as being involved in Brugada syndrome that produce calcium ion channels and a protein in the cell surface (membrane) that interacts with the sodium channel. They have, however, only been detected in a small number of carriers.