Professor Alan John Camm - Professor of Cardiology (QHP., MD., F.R.C.P., F.E.S.C., F.A.C.C.)

Professor Camm studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School, London. After qualifying in 1971 he worked at Guy'sHospital for three years and then spent a year in Vermont, USA before working at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he spent 12 years. He was then elected the Chairman of Medicine in October 1990.

Professor Camm is a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians and also a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the Council of Geriatric Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology. He is also a member of the British Cardiac Society, the British Pacing and Electrophysiology Group and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology.

Professor Camm has a broad range of professional interests. His major speciality is cardiac arrhythmias but he is also much involved in clinical cardiac electrophysiology, cardiac pacemakers, risk stratification in post myocardial infarction, heart failure and cardiomyopathy drugs. Professor Camm has given over 1000 lectures to international audiences, written more than 822 papers and appears in over 1193 abstracts. Professor Camm is widely recognised for his research and teaching roles at national and international levels.

In partnership with Richmond Pharmacology, Professor Camm's group, based within St. George's University of London, offer clients two main approaches in QT interval measurement and analysis:

• manual over-read by cardiologists
• semi-automated method with cardiologist verification

In fully manual over-read the QT interval is measured by a highly trained and experienced cardiologist on screen using electronic callipers (MUSE CV Interval Editor, GE Marquette Medical Systems) with sufficient magnification allowing the measurement precision equal to the storage frequency of 500 MHz, i.e. 1 ms. Whilst the details of the analysis can be discussed and agreed with our clients at the study design stage, as a matter of routine, in each ECG the QT interval is measured in all 12 leads. The median QT interval of all measurable beats from the 12 leads is then taken as valid for that particular ECG.

Alternatively, if this better suits client's needs we also offer regulatory compliant semi-automated QT interval measurements. In this method, interval markers derived by MUSE CV Interval Editor are assessed for accuracy by an experienced and fully trained cardiologist. The degree of cardiologist input may vary to meet the client needs.

Some of Professor Camm's most important peer-reviewed publications include:

Camm AJ, Ward DE, Cory-Pearce R, Rees G, Spurrell RAJ: The successful cryosurgical treatment of paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia. Chest 1979;75:621-624

Camm AJ, Ward DE, Spurrell RAJ: Cryothermal mapping and cryoablation in the treatment of refractory cardiac arrhythmias. Circulation 1980;62:67-74

Camm AJ, Ward DE, Cory-Pearce R, Rees GM, Spurrell RAJ: Surgery for ventricular tachycardia. Lancet 1980;i:579

Camm AJ, Evans KE, Ward DE, Martin A: The rhythm of the heart in active elderly subjects. Am Heart J 1980;99:598-603

Camm AJ, Ward DE, Whitmarsh V: The acute cardiac electrophysiological effects of intravenous metoprolol. Clin Cardiol 1982;5:327-331

Saksena S, Camm AJ, Bilitch M, et al.: Clinical investigation of implantable antitachycardia devices: Report of the policy conference of the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. J Am Coll Cardiol 1987;10:225-229

Malik M, Camm AJ: Mechanism of Wenckebach periods - a hypothesis based on computer modelling experiments. Am J Physiol 1989;257:H1263-H1274

Malik M, Camm AJ: Heart rate variability. Clin Cardiol 1990;13:570-576

Camm AJ, Garratt CJ: Drug therapy: Adenosine and supraventricular tachycardia. N Engl J Med 1991;325:1621-1629

Saksena S, Camm AJ: Implantable defibrillators for prevention of sudden death. Technology at a medical and economic crossroad. Circulation 1992;85(6):2316-2321

Levy S, Camm AJ: An implantable atrial defibrillator. An impossible dream? Circulation 1993;87:1769-1772

Murgatroyd FD, Camm AJ: Atrial arrhythmias. Lancet 1993;341:1317-1322

Grace AA, Camm AJ: Drug therapy: Quinidine N Engl J Med 1998;338:35-45

Wellens HJJ, Lau CP, Luderitz B, Akhtar M, Waldo AL, Camm AJ, Timmermans C, Tse HF, Jung W, Jordaens L, Ayers G, for the Metrix investigators: Atrioverter: An implantable device for the treatment of atrial fibrillation Circulation 1998;98:1651-1656

Camm AJ, Janse MJ, Roden DM, Rosen MR, Cinca J, Cobbe SM: Congenital and acquired long QT syndrome. Eur Heart J 2000;21:1232-1237

Malik M, Camm AJ, Janse G, Julian DG, Frangin G, Schwartz PJ: Depressed heart rate variability identifies postinfarction patients who might benefit from prophylactic treatment with amiodarone: A substudy of EMIAT (The European Myocardial Infarct Amiodarone Trial) J Am Coll Cardiol 2000;35:1263-1275

Camm AJ, and Members of the Sicilian Gambit: New approaches to antiarrhythmic therapy, Part I. Circulation 2001;104:2865-2873

Camm AJ, and Members of the Sicilian Gambit: New approaches to antiarrhythmic therapy, Part II. Circulation 2001;104:2990-2994

Savelieva I, Paquette M, Dorian P, L deritz B, Camm AJ: Quality of life in patients with silent atrial fibrillation. Heart 2001;356:2052-2058