How the heart works...
Beat, Reset, pause, repeat.
After each beat the heart needs to reset ready for the next. In Long QT Syndrome, the T wave (the heart relaxing after contracting) happens later than it should so the heart may not be ‘open’ for the start of the next beat.
Long QT Syndrome
Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) is a condition that affects the way your heart beats. Your heart uses electrical signals to know when to beat and when to rest. The Q is where the electricity moves into the walls between the left and right ventricles (the bottom chambers of the heart). The T is where the heart recovers and resets.
Recipe
🧬 The Heart’s Electric Recipe Book
Imagine your heart has a special recipe book that tells it how to make electricity flow safely — like instructions for baking a cake that rises just right. Each recipe is written by a gene — like a page in the book. But sometimes, one of those pages has a typo. Not a big messy spill, just a tiny letter out of place. That small change can cause the cake to rise too slowly… or too fast… or not at all.Different types of Long QT Syndrome happen because:
• Different pages (genes) have different typos.
• Each typo affects a different ingredient — like salt, sugar, or baking powder.
• That’s why doctors give each type a number (Type 1, Type 2, etc.) — it tells them which page has the typo and how the heart’s recipe is affected.
A 'Handy' Explanation
Use your hand to understand the way the heart works
Have a play with your hand!
Count to 7 each time.
For a normal heart
1. Start with your hand open - like a stop sign.
2. Next bend your fingers a little, so they are half down. This is the P wave, the electricity starting at the top of the heart to begin the contraction (beat).
3. Now, close your hand into a fist. Here, the electricity moves down through the heart to the ventricles where it spreads out across the whole of the heart muscle.
4. Open your hand into a claw.
In a 'normal' heart, the heart opens back up pretty fast so that it moves to step 5 without much delay.
5/6. Your hand is back open in its 'stop' position. Keep it like that for a second before starting again.
7 (2). Repeat.
Your hand has a 2 count of 5 and 6 before starting again.
For an LQTS heart
1. Start with your hand open - like a stop sign.
2. Next bend your fingers a little, so they are half down.
3. Now, close your hand into a fist with your fingers curled in.
4. Open your hand slightly, so that your fingers are still on your palm but not curled.
5. Now open your hand into a claw.
6. Your hand is back open in its 'stop' position.
7 (2). Repeat.
In this one, although it takes the same length of time, your hand only has a 1 count before restarting.