The Tell-Tale Heart
“It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain,
but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night.”
In our version, it was the sudden silence of a heart that inspired madness in our researchers. A mad desire, really, to find the gene that caused so many hearts to cease beating in young men and women across the globe.
Dr. Terry-Lynn Young, of the faculty of Medicine, and her team knew the genetic link to this disease was on one particular chromosome. But they were driven to find that exact gene. On Feb. 28, 2008, they found it— thearrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy gene. Now they can counteract the ARVC gene by implanting a fast-acting defibrillator,making silent hearts beat again. Most importantly, they can now test for the gene long before the silence of a heart tells them there's something sinister lurking beneath the surface.
