Foreword

Article Outline

• Copyright

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is one of the primary electrical heart diseases that is characterized by severe arrhythmias in young patients with apparently normal hearts. Some of the other disorders in this group of diseases include congenital long QT syndrome and the Brugada syndrome.

CPVT is characterized by exercise- and stress-related ventricular tachycardia, which presents as syncope and sudden death. The autosomal-dominant and autosomal-recessive forms are labeled CPVT1 and CPVT2, respectively.

Dr. Eldar and his colleagues present an authoritative and superb review of this arrhythmia. They move from the clinical aspects to the basic science of this arrhythmia, to its treatment, and finally, to the genetic testing.

The Editorial Board and I are grateful to Dr. Eldar for this excellent review and to Drs. Weiss^⁎ and Scheinman for their insightful and extremely important comments.

• ⁎ James N. Weiss, MD, is Kawata Professor of Medicine and Physiology, Chief, Division of Cardiology, Director Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, California.