Sudden Cardiac Death

Sir.—The otherwise excellent review of sudden cardiac death in young athletes by McCaffrey and colleagues¹ is marred by misstatement of the inheritance of the long QT syndromes. The Jervell and Lange-Nielson syndrome² is autosomal recessive and accompanied by congenital deafness. The Romano-Ward syndrome^3,4 has an autosomal dominant inheritance and is accompanied by normal hearing. Many family studies have confirmed these patterns of inheritance.⁵