1. Electrocardiogram in Friedreich's ataxia: A short‐term surrogate endpoint for treatment efficacy
- Author
-
Giuseppe Di Stolfo, Raimondo Massaro, Sandra Mastroianno, Michele Germano, Aldo Russo, Massimo Carella, Domenico Potenza, and Angela Maggio
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,congenital, hereditary, and neonatal diseases and abnormalities ,Ataxia ,Case Report ,Case Reports ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,electrocardiogram ,QT interval ,03 medical and health sciences ,Dysarthria ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physiology (medical) ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Diseases of the circulatory (Cardiovascular) system ,030212 general & internal medicine ,biology ,treatment ,business.industry ,Surrogate endpoint ,Limb ataxia ,Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ,Friedreich's ataxia ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Clinical trial ,RC666-701 ,Cardiology ,Frataxin ,biology.protein ,medicine.symptom ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business - Abstract
Friedreich's ataxia is a rare degenerative neuromuscular disorder, caused by a homozygous GAA triplet repeat expansion in the frataxin (FXN) gene, with a broad clinical phenotype characterized by progressive gait and limb ataxia, dysarthria, and loss of lower limb reflexes; cardiac involvement is represented by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac deaths. Currently, no definite therapy is available, while many drugs are under investigation; for this reasons, we need markers of short‐ and long‐term treatment efficacy acting on different tissue for trial evaluation. We describe the case of a 21‐year‐old patient affected by Friedreich's ataxia on wheel‐chair, with initial cardiac involvement and electrocardiographic features characterized by thiamine treatment‐related negative T wave and QTc variations. We discuss plausible physiopathology and potential ECG role implications as an intermediate marker of treatment response in future clinical trials considering patients affected by Friedreich's ataxia.
- Published
- 2021