Autoantibodies with beta-adrenergic activity from chronic chagasic patients induce cardiac arrhythmias and early afterdepolarization in a drug-induced LQT2 rabbit hearts.

Background: Cardiac arrhythmias are one of the main causes of death in ChCP and other dilated cardiomyopathies. Previous studies demonstrated that ventricular arrhythmias are associated with the presence of autoantibodies with beta-adrenergic activity, Ab-β.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether Ab-β, present in chronic chagasic patients (ChCP), induce cardiac arrhythmias in the pharmacological type-2 long QT syndrome model (LQTS-2).