Identification of Drug-Induced Multichannel Block and Proarrhythmic Risk in Humans Using Continuous T Vector Velocity Effect Profiles Derived From Surface Electrocardiograms

We present continuous T vector velocity (TVV) effect profiles as a new method for identifying drug effects on cardiac ventricular repolarization. TVV measures the temporal change in the myocardial action potential distribution during repolarization. The T vector dynamics were measured as the time required to reach p percent of the total T vector trajectory length, denoted as Tr(p), with p in {1, …, 100%}. The Tr(p) values were individually corrected for heart rate at each trajectory length percentage p. Drug effects were measured by evaluating the placebo corrected changes from baseline of Tr(p)c jointly for all p using functional mixed effects models. The p-dependent model parameters were implemented as cubic splines, providing continuous drug effect profiles along the entire ventricular repolarization process. The effect profile distributions were approximated by bootstrap simulations. We applied this TVV-based analysis approach to ECGs available from three published studies that were conducted in the CiPA context. These studies assessed the effect of 10 drugs and drug combinations with different ion channel blocking properties on myocardial repolarization in a total of 104 healthy volunteers. TVV analysis revealed that blockade of outward potassium currents alone presents an effect profile signature of continuous accumulation of delay throughout the entire repolarization interval. In contrast, block of inward sodium or calcium currents involves acceleration, which accumulates during early repolarization. The balance of blocking inward versus outward currents was reflected in the percentage p(zero) of the T vector trajectory length where accelerated repolarization transitioned to delayed repolarization. Binary classification using a threshold p(zero) = 43% separated predominant hERG channel blocking drugs with potentially higher proarrhythmic risk (moxifloxacin, dofetilide, quinidine, chloroquine) from multichannel blocking drugs with low proarrhythmic risk (ranolazine, verapamil, lopinavir/ritonavir) with sensitivity 0.99 and specificity 0.97. The TVV-based effect profile provides a detailed view of drug effects throughout the entire ventricular repolarization interval. It enables the evaluation of drug-induced blocks of multiple cardiac repolarization currents from clinical ECGs. The proposed p(zero) parameter enhances identification of the proarrhythmic risk of a drug beyond QT prolongation, and therefore constitutes an important tool for cardiac arrhythmia risk assessment.