Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many studies revealed that variations in cardiac ion channels would cause cardiac arrhythmias or act as genetic risk factors. We hypothesized that specific single nucleotide polymorphisms in cardiac ion channels were associated with cardiac rhythm disturbance in the Chinese population. METHOD: We analyzed 160 nonfamilial cardiac arrhythmia patients and 176 healthy individuals from which 81 individuals were selected for association study, and a total of 19 previously reported SNPs in four cardiac ion channel genes (KCNQ1, KCNH2, SCN5A, KCNE1) were genotyped. RESULTS: The frequency of KCNQ1 1638G>A, as well as the haplotype harboring KCNQ1 1638A, KCNQ1 1685 + 23G and 1732 + 43T (haplotype AGT) was significantly higher in healthy controls than in arrhythmia patients. This finding implicated that this haplotype (AGT) might be a protective factor against arrhythmias. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provided important information to elucidate the effect of SNPs of cardiac ion channel genes on channel function and susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmias in Chinese population.