Arrhythmias & electrophysiologyMeta-analysis
Risk stratification in short QT syndrome: Findings from a pooled analysis
- Pooled analysis
- patients treated in our institutions or those reported in the literature
Authors' conclusion
This pooled analysis of patients with SQTS demonstrates that, among patients with congenital SQTS, a shorter QTc is associated with a higher risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias. A QTc shorter than 320 ms correlates with a higher arrhythmic risk. Men seem to be at higher risk.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with short QT syndrome (SQTS) and known symptomatic status57 of them (35.2%) had arrhythmic symptoms (sudden death, cardiac arrest, or malignant syncope)
- Participants
- 162 patients
- Comparison
- QTc among symptomatic vs asymptomatic patients with SQTS
- symptomatic patientsn = 57
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
QTc and arrhythmic symptoms
P = 0.0023
Further pooled results
Receiver operator characteristics analysis of QTc for arrhythmic risk
- area under the curve
- 0.64 ± 0.04
- P
- P = 0.0024
- shorter QTc values were associated with a higher risk
Arrhythmic symptoms by QTc range
- most of those with a QTc of ≤320 ms had malignant arrhythmic symptoms, whereas the reverse was true for those with a QTc of ≥320 ms
Sex
- Male patients were overrepresented in the SQTS cohort and more so in the subgroup with malignant symptoms
Original publication
Risk stratification in short QT syndrome: Findings from a pooled analysis. Heart Rhythm. Published 5 March 2026. doi:10.1016/j.hrthm.2026.03.001
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it