A consensus report on the Brugada Syndrome was simultaneously published in the January, 2005 issue of Circulation, a leading clinical journal published by the American Heart Association and Heart Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society. The report received the endorsement of the Heart Rhyhtm Society in the United States and the European Heart Rhythm Association. The detailed report elaborates on the diagnostic criteria needed to identify the syndrome and examines risk factors, devices and medications for treatment based on current data. The Brugada syndrome is characterized by a distinct form of ST segment elevation in the electrocardiogram (ECG.) The report emphasized that the syndrome is not always obvious on the ECG but can be unmasked by administration of drugs known as sodium channel blockers. It also noted that patients with aborted sudden death are at highest risk for the disease.

Coincident with the consensus report is the release of the first comprehensive book on the syndrome entitled, The Brugada Syndrome from Bench to Bedside, published by Blackwell Futura Publishing and edited by Dr. Charles Antzelevitch, Executive Director of the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory (MMRL). Sixty clinicians and scientist from all over the world contributed to the book. The book deals not only with the fundamental aspects of the syndrome, but also examines how the mechanisms involved may serve as a model for understanding a wide variety of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia syndromes.

Since its introduction as a new clinical entity in 1992, the Brugada syndrome has attracted great interest because of its high prevalence in many parts of the world and its association with a high risk of sudden death in young adults and children. The Masonic Medical Research Laboratory hosted a Brugada Syndrome Consensus Conference last fall. Drs. Charles Antzelevitch and Pedro Brugada, Professor of Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Center OLV in Belgium, served as co-chairs of the meeting. Fifteen scientists and clinicians with extensive expertise from all over the world met to formulate diagnostic criteria and treatment strategies to recommend to physicians in treating patients with the Brugada syndrome. The concensus report and book are direct products of this historic meeting.

The Brugada syndrome is a form of sudden cardiac death that tragically takes the lives of young and otherwise healthy adults and, less frequently, infants and children. It is an inherited syndrome (arrhythmia) that can lead to life threatening ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation occurs when the electrical activity in the main pumping chambers of the heart (ventricles) goes into disarray, preventing normal flow of blood to the body. An electrical shock to the individual's heart must be administered within minutes to correct this life threatening situation. MMRL scientists participated in the discovery of the first and only gene to be linked to the Brugada syndrome (SCN5A/sodium channel gene). The Masonic Medical Research Laboratory is currently the leading center of study of the Brugada syndrome in the United States.

Dedicated in 1958, the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory is an internationally renowned state-of-the-art medical research center. The MMRL primary focus is in experimental cardiology with special emphasis on abnormal heart rhythms known as cardiac arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease and sudden cardiac death. In recent years, the MMRL has become a central hub for genetic screening of inherited arrhythmic diseases in the United States. MMRL scientists are responsible for uncovering the genetic basis of three sudden death syndromes that take the lives of infants, children and young adults and for the design of new treatments for these medical afflictions. To learn more about the MMRL, visit www.mmrl.edu