Italian heart specialists recommend to introduce ECG screening for all infants at around three to four weeks of age to pick up a life-threatening genetic condition called long QT syndrome.

Evidence they have gathered from ECGs in a prospective study of 45,000 infants, coupled with a cost-effectiveness analysis, has demonstrated that significant numbers of sudden deaths could be prevented for less than €12,000 per year-of-life saved.

The findings from the cost analysis study are published in the European Heart Journal.

The study, led by Peter J. Schwartz of the University of Pavia and IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, focused on the inherited condition long QT syndrome ( LQTS ), a disorder of the electrical rhythm of the heart. It rarely produces symptoms but is a leading cause of sudden death in children and young adults, and when it occurs in infants their deaths are usually mislabelled as sudden infant death syndrome ( SIDS ).

In fact, Schwartz and associates have recently completed a study on over 200 victims of SIDS from Norway and have found genetic mutations diagnostic for long QT syndrome in almost 10%. This indicates that early treatment of LQTS would also prevent some deaths regarded as SIDS because, once detected, it can be successfully treated in most cases with medication by beta-blockers, or occasionally by sympathetic denervation or the use of implantable defibrillators.

Although the focus of the 45,000-infant study was to identify infants with LQTS, the research also unexpectedly revealed four cases involving two other life-threatening heart conditions – coarctation of the aorta and anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery ( ALCAPA ) – which had gone undetected in initial neonatal checks. This finding led directly to the researchers extending their cost-effectiveness analysis to include these two congenital heart diseases.

Schwartz said: “ Our study clearly demonstrates that neonatal ECG screening is highly cost-effective and that a significant number of lives can be saved – possibly up to 230-250 a year, for example, in the 15 countries of the pre-enlarged EU – for an objectively small cost. The time is ripe for those involved in the administration of public health to consider the implementation by the National Health Services of such a programme, with the objective of reducing the number of preventable sudden cardiac deaths in infants, children and young adults.”

He said that although there could be some differences in specific costs in different countries, their calculation for its introduction in Italy varied all probabilities and costs by plus or minus 30% so as to be valid for most European countries.

There have been various estimates in the medical literature in the past about the prevalence of LQTS, with figures ranging from one in 5,000 to one in 20,000, but none was based on actual data. The Pavia team’s research is the first large prospective study on an unselected population. They performed ECG between days 15 and 25 in 45,000 infants and found a markedly prolonged QT interval in almost one in 1,000 ( 0.9 ).
In more than 50% of these infants Schwartz has identified gene mutations responsible for LQTS. “ Therefore this means that the prevalence is probably around one in 2,500 – higher than previous estimates,” he said.

“ The cost per year-of-life saved by identifying and treating LQTS is really very low – €11,740: for saving one entire life of 70 years we are looking at just €820,000. When, to account for what happens in the real world, we also consider the two other congenital heart diseases that routine ECG screening can pick up, then the cost per year-of-life saved is only just over €7,000 or around €490,000 over a 70-year lifetime.”

He said that 220 out of 550,000 newborns per year ( in Italy ) are affected by LQTS. Without screening 13.5% ( 30 ) would die early. But screening would cut this to 3.2% ( 7 ), saving 23 lives a year. Additionally, screening would prevent four more deaths due to the two congenital heart diseases. In total therefore, screening in Italy would save an estimated 27 lives a year from the three conditions combined.

Source: European Society of Cardiology, 2006


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