Early Repolarization in Survivors of Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation

Early repolarization is a common electrocardiographic finding that is thought to be benign. However, experimental evidence suggests that early repolarization is potentially associated with sudden cardiac arrest. In an international retrospective study of data from 22 tertiary-care arrhythmia centers, investigators compared 206 survivors of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (VF) with 412 age-, sex-, and race-matched controls. Idiopathic VF was defined as sudden cardiac arrest occurring in the absence of present or inducible structural or electrical abnormalities, including (among others) long QT syndrome, short QT interval, and Brugada syndrome.

Early repolarization was present in 64 case subjects (31%) versus 21 control subjects (5%, P<0.0…