EFFECTS OF NON-RIGHT HANDEDNESS ON RISK FOR SUDDEN-DEATH ASSOCIATED WITH CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE

The hypothesis that non-right handedness is associated with sudden car diac death was tested based on evidence that sympathetic imbalance may contribute to ventricular arrhythmogenesis and evidence that left-han ders may have a shorter lifespan than right-handers. The study include d 26 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), a history of ventric ular tachycardia-ventricular fibrillation (VT-VF), and implanted defib rillators, and 26 patients with CAD and no history of serious arrhythm ias who were matched for age, sex, and New York Heart Association func tional class. Patients with any history of neurologic disorders were e xcluded. Left-handers either wrote with the left hand or were converte d from left- to right-handedness in childhood. Non-right-handers used the left hand for writing drawing, or throwing Handedness rates in pat ients with VT-VF and case-control subjects were compared with publishe d norms in the general population to take expected rates into account. The rates of left handedness (6 of 26 or 23.1%) and non-right-handedn ess (9 of 26 or 34.6%) in patients with VT-VF were significantly highe r (p < 0.003 and p < 0.0001, 2-tailed, respectively) than those of sim ilarly aged adults in the general population (left-handedness, 5%; non -right-handedness, 10.2%). The rates of left-handedness (2 of 26 or 7. 7%) and non-right-handed ness (4 of 26 or 15.4%) observed in the case- control group correspond closely to the expected values for that group (left-handedness, 1.3 of 26 or 5%; non-right-handedness, 2.65 of 26 o r 10.2%) derived from the general population rates and were not signif icantly different from them. If these findings are confirmed in a pros pective study, non-right-handedness should be considered a risk factor for sudden death in the Context of CAD.