A team of international researchers has revealed a new, simple clinical test to detect Calcium Release Deficiency Syndrome (CRDS), a life-threatening genetic arrhythmia that causes dangerously fast heartbeats and can lead to severe complications such as sudden cardiac arrest and death. The new diagnostic method monitors for changes in electrocardiography (ECG) after a brief period of a fast heartbeat and a pause, which can occur naturally or be induced by artificially pacing the heart. This research was co-led by Jason Roberts, a scientist at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI), a joint institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, and Wayne Chen, a scientist and professor at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine, and published on June 20, 2024, in JAMA .
While 60,000 cardiac arrests occur annually in Canada, CRDS remains undetectable with standard clinical tests, often resulting in the cardiac arrests being labeled as unexplained. This gap in understanding the underlying cause prevents the delivery of optimal care to survivors and vulnerable family members who may be affected by this genetic condition. This novel and simple diagnostic method, which can be performed using an electrocardiogram in a broad range of clinical settings, is hopefully an important step towards improving our evaluation of initially unexplained cardiac arrest (UCA).
" Jason Roberts, co-princ.
