Routine ECG Screening in Infancy and Early Childhood Should Not Be Performed.

Heart Rhythm. 2014 Sep 16. pii: S1547-5271(14)01038-8. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.09.046. [Epub ahead of print] Skinner JR, Van Hare GF.

Abstract

For all of us working in the field of inherited heart conditions, our ultimate aim is the prevention of sudden cardiac death in young people in our communities. Some leaders in the field suggest there is sufficient evidence to propose population ECG screening in infancy as a means to detect longQT syndrome. We disagree with this view, for a number of reasons: We propose that a more attractive alternative is the detection of long QTsyndrome in the community through an active multidisciplinary program to detect probands and screen family members, based around a clinical registry. This has already proven to be effective internationally, and can also be used to detect other potentially lethal inherited heart diseases in the community. If adequately resourced, this method will provide a quicker, more reliable and more societally acceptable method to detect and manage families at risk, such that it might conceivably render population screening redundant.

Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

KEYWORDS:
genetics; long QT syndrome; screening; sudden cardiac death