Channelopathy constitute significant proportion of SCD worldwide ( around 10% or 370000 death annually). Besides LQTS, the channelopathies include Brugada syndrome (BrS), short QT syndrome,Early Repolarization Syndrome(ERS), catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), and congenital sick sinus syndrome. It was constituting a mysterious group of disease until the second half of the last century when Anton Jervell and Fred Lange-Nielsen described Jervell Lange-Nielsen syndrome in 1957.It was late until 1995 where genetic characterization commenced. Later on the massive genetic information obtained in the field with discovery of genetic heterogeneity and allelic heterogeneity were all part of our new understanding and clues to solve the historical conundrum of channelopathies. In this presentation, we review the genetic basis of sudden cardiac death with a focus on the current knowledge on the genetics of the primary electric disorders caused primarily by mutations in genes encoding ion channels. Diving deep into the genetic details of those syndromes enable us to improve our knowledge and decode the pathophysiology of those malignant arrhythmias. The ultimate ambition is prevention of channelopathy based sudden cardiac death and associated disorders in human.
Professor Abdullah Alabdulgader, MD, DCH(I), DCH(Edinb), MRCP(UK), ABP, FRCP(UK) was born in Al -Khobar and raised in Al-Hasa, in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. Al-Hasa is in the middle of ancient wisdom with cultural and religious sobriety, while being embraced in marvellous harmony with the gigantic oil industry. His genetic lineage extends to the Al-Ansar tribe where, over 40 generations ago, Abu AyubAlansari was one of the elite partners of prophet Muhammad. Professor Alabdulgader graduated from the college of medicine and medical sciences, King Faisal University, in 1991. Immediately, after graduation, he was involved in extensive medical training, cascaded at different levels of specialties, until 1997 where he was certified with five medical degrees. This qualified him to double major specialty in paediatrics and adolescent medicine and subspecialty in paediatric cardiology with awards from Saudi Arabia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. He excelled to achieve a record achievement in becoming a member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (UK), having completed all examinations and requirements in just 12 months and becoming an MRCP(UK) holder at the age of 27. Soon afterward he established he first foundation for congenital heart services in eastern Saudi Arabia. In addition to optimizing the organization of clinical services, research was one of his paramount priorities. Professor Alabdulgader has long been fascinated by the epidemiology of cardiac dysmorphology in humans. He initiated examination of the incidence and demographic characteristics for congenital heart disease for the first time in his part of the world. This scientific step heralded the onset of one of the major scientific projects in human history – concerned with discovering the environmental and genetic risk factors of congenital heart diseases in an attempt to discover the mysterious secrets of human heart dysmorphogenesis, with the ultimate aim of overcoming the disease in human species. In 2001, Professor Alabdulgader was granted a special governmental scholarship to further sub-specialize in cardiac electrophysiology and electrical rhythm devices. This. study was undertaken in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. During this time, he was able to describe, for the first time in medical literature, unique congenital anomalies, in native Canadian new-borns, from Calgary University hospital. He is well known for founding the Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, in Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia (PSCCH) after a generous donation from the late crown prince of the country HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz. PSCCH, today, is one of the leading tertiary care cardiac centersin the middle east and the world. Professor Alabdulgader’s holistic universal scope in science and the universe led him to establish the reputable King of Organs Congress for Advanced Cardiac Sciences, where the wisdom dictates perceiving the human heart as a souvenir of the soul and a cradle of the mind and wisdom, with extensive and delicate symphony resonating to higher energetic levels of collective consciousness. Critical conceptual faith and reasoning behind the King of Organs establishment was to rescue humanity from the historical myths with absent scientific insight, such as the great cholesterol myth. Professor Alabdulgader, as the congress founder and president, and the late professor Paul Rosch, as his congress deputy, devoted a full day of scientific debate to expose the cholesterol myth in four 12 consecutive international conferences (2008, 2010, 2012 and 2019). In other work, Professor Alabdulgader collaborated with HeartMath Institute, California, USA, where he was able to establish a special detection system to record the planetary Schumann frequencies. He was awarded the world gold medal from WOSCO (Great Britain-2012) for establishing unique direction in astrobiology and cardiac sciences exploring the human heart rate variability orchestration with Schumann resonances and solar winds. In the same year he was awarded the Diploma of honour from the International Committee on geological and environmental change (GEOCHANGE), Munich, Germany. In 2018, he led a scientific team from HeartMath Institute, NASA, along with a reputable European scientist, in the longest human record synchronizing human heart rate variability with Schumann resonances, solar winds and cosmic rays. This achievement was published in Nature scientific reports in February 2018. Nowadays, Professor Alabdulgader is leading a number of international projects concerned with investigating the role of the very low frequency band of the heart rate variability in inflammation and systemic hypertension to treat systemic hypertension without medications. The Saudi Homocysteine Atherosclerosis and Cancer Trial (SAHACT) utilizes cellular pathways with simple nutrients to combat atherosclerosis and cancer in human, and other projects. In the clinical arena he is a senior interventional congenital cardiologist and electrophysiologist performing ablation interventions with radiofrequency as well as cryoablation technologies utilizing cardiac electrical mapping to cure cardiac arrhythmias. Professor Alabdulgader is a scientific board member and editorial board member of many international organizations and journals in the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, China, India and other countries. He has received many acknowledging letters and honouring events and gifts from King Salman, Princes, and world authorities. At the moment, he is the senior scientist and chief physician in PSCCH and the leader of the research and biostatistics services, preparing for the next King of Organs congress with higher consciousness for the better future of humankind.
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