Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers have made a fundamental discovery about how the heart compensates for genetic variations that otherwise could trigger abnormal and potentially fatal heart rhythms.

Vanderbilt research shows that genetic testing in patients with early-onset atrial fibrillation can identify variants associated with more serious cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia syndromes that may otherwise remain undiagnosed.

Charles Sanders, PhD, and colleagues show how a “supertrafficking” mutant potassium channel contributes to heart rhythm abnormalities.

Postoperative atrial fibrillation (PoAF), a form of arrhythmia, complicates 20-40% of cardiac surgical procedures and 10–20% of non-cardiac thoracic operations, cropping up two to four days after surgery to pose risk of stroke, heart attack, mortality, longer hospital stays and greater cost.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have used high-throughput robotic technology to rapidly study and classify variations in a gene linked to heart rhythm disorders and cardiac conditions.

VUMC receives more than $3.7 million from the American Heart Association to study cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac arrest

Risk factors for arrhythmias after heart surgery in infants include medications, infant age and higher surgical complexity, but not two genetic variants examined by Vanderbilt researchers.