New observations on the “early repolarization syndrome”

Abstract

They described a highprevalence of this electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern (de-fined as J-point elevation [JPE]) in idiopathic VF, thusseeming to confirm previous hypotheses. From a clinicalpoint of view, this new evidence forced us to look for thispattern in subjects classified until then as idiopathic VF. Atthe same time, it is necessary to establish the “reverseassociation”: that is, are healthy individuals with this pat-tern, without any other risk factor, at risk for sudden cardiacdeath (SCD)? This turns out to be a major clinical dilemmadue to the high prevalence of this pattern in the normalpopulation, and this was the subject of an excellent recentreview.