Cardiac muscle variants and sudden infant death

A study suggests that a variant in the gene for the cardiac contractile protein troponin I, found in certain cases of sudden unexpected death in infants (SUDI), disrupts neonatal cardiac physiology by reducing the calcium-binding affinity of thin muscle filaments and can trigger arrhythimas in neonatal human cardiac muscle cells, suggesting that the variant might contribute to SUDI by causing sudden cardiac arrest.

###

Article #18-19023: "In vitro analyses of suspected arrhythmogenic thin filament variants as a cause of sudden cardiac death in infants," by Sanam Shafaattalab et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Glen F. Tibbits, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, CANADA; tel: 778-782-3658, 604-910-4358; e-mail: tibbits@sfu.ca