Abstract
BACKGROUND: Several antipsychotic agents are known to prolong the QT interval. A study was undertaken to find the possible influence of polymorphisms of GSTZ1 (MIM: 603758) and XRCC1 (MIM: 194360) on the rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The study was carried out on 48 inpatients with schizophrenia. The patients were diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia according to structured clinical interviews using SCID-I (clinician version) to confirm and document DSM-IV diagnosis. Measurements of the QT and RR intervals were recorded using a magnifying grid on lead II. The QTc was calculated according to Bazett's formula. A PCR-based method was used to determine the GSTZ1 and XRCC1 genotypes. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that there was no association between the study polymorphisms of GSTZ1 and XRCC1 and QTc. CONCLUSIONS: GSTZ1 is not associated with QTc in patients treated with antipsychotic drugs.