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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffProlonged QT intervals may never cause any problems. However, physical or emotional stress may "trip up" a heart susceptible to prolonged QT intervals and cause the heart's rhythm to spin out of control.
A prolonged QT interval may trigger a particular irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) called torsades de pointes — "twists of the points" — in which your heart's ventricles beat fast, making the waves on an ECG monitor look twisted. When this arrhythmia occurs, less blood is pumped out from your heart. Less blood then reaches your brain, causing you to faint.
If a torsades de pointes episode is short — lasting less than one minute — your heart can correct itself seconds later, and you regain consciousness on your own. However, if a torsades de pointes episode persists, it can lead to a life-threatening arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation.
In ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles beat so fast that your heart quivers and ceases pumping blood. Unless your heart is shocked back into a normal rhythm by a device called a defibrillator, ventricular fibrillation can lead to brain damage and death. It's thought that long QT syndrome may explain some cases of sudden death in young people who otherwise appear healthy.
