Irvine, Calif., Feb. 18, 2014 — UC Irvine researchers have found a specific genetic flaw that is connected to sudden death due to heart arrhythmia – a leading cause of mortality for adults around the world.
While a number of genes have been linked with arrhythmias, UC Irvine's Geoffrey Abbott and his colleagues discovered that the functional impairment of a gene called KCNE2 underlies a multisystem syndrome that affects both heart rhythm and blood flow and can activate chemical triggers that can cause sudden cardiac death.