Article on Brugada Syndrome in November's Discover Magazine

That's right. A physician who runs an Emergency Department tells the story of a healthy man with syncope being sent home because his tests are normal. Even though another doctor notices something unusual on the ECG, the patient is sent on his way.

It turns out he has Brugada Syndrome. Don't worry, the ending is good. And this short article give a brief, no-nonsense summary of the history of the disease along with the reasons that its diagnosis can be so difficult. It is rare - he cites the statistic of less than one half of one percent of people in the United States may have Brugada.

Still that number is too large to ignore, methinks.

In other news, I listened to a speech by Phil Romano last week. He was the keynote at a local annual dinner. He is a restauranteur, and developed Fudruckers, Macaroni Grill, and others. He's from this town. Anyway, he's a good speaker and storyteller. He's also a venture capitalist, and his interest is in medical research. One idea he funded and sold to Johnson & Johnson (for millions, I might add) was for a cardiac stent. Currently, he's invested in the development of a chip that can read glucose levels transdermally. It could fit inside a watch, perhaps, someday. I am grateful for the Phil Romanos in this world. I don't know where we'd be without them.