Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young

Abstract

Although the occurrence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in a young person is a rare event, it is traumatic and often widely publicized. In recent years, SCD in this population has been increasingly seen as a public health and safety issue. This review presents current knowledge relevant to the epidemiology of SCD and to strategies for prevention, resuscitation and identification of those at greatest risk. Areas of active research and controversy include the development of best practices in screening, risk stratification approaches and post-mortem evaluation, and identification of modifiable barriers to providing better outcomes after resuscitation of young SCD victims. Institution of a national registry of SCD in the young will provide data that will help to answer these questions.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest during Participation in Competitive Sports

“…25,26 The incidence of sudden cardiac arrest during participation in competitive sports in our analysis (0.76 cases per 100,000 athlete-years) is similar to that reported previously 3,5 and includes resuscitated persons, which thus provides a more comprehensive estimate of the incidence. By comparison, the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest in the general population of the same age group has been reported to be 4.84 cases per 100,000 person-years.…”

“…3 The instantaneous risk of sudden cardiac arrest in persons who have a predisposition to sudden cardiac arrest is markedly increased during participation in sports, even though most sudden cardiac arrests occur while the person is at rest. 4 The incidence of sudden cardiac death during participation in a sport in the general population has been reported to be approximately 0.46 cases per 100,000 person-years.…”

“…Almost all the studies have focused on persons who could not be resuscitated (sudden cardiac deaths), and in most of the studies, death certificates, hospital records, autopsy reports, or searches of publicly available records were used to identify cases of sudden cardiac arrest. 3–10 These approaches are limited because systematic methods were not used to identify all persons in a particular community who had sudden cardiac arrest and because survivors were not included.…”

A novel de novo calmodulin mutation in a 6-year-old boy who experienced an aborted cardiac arrest

“…Furthermore, CALM1 mutations were described in a catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT)-like phenotype 4 . Sudden unexplained death in the young can be the first clinical manifestation of an underlying arrhythmogenic disorder such as idiopathic VF 5, 6. After an aborted cardiac arrest, determining the diagnosis begins with a systematic clinical evaluation.…”

Sudden cardiac death in the young: cytokines and pathways

“…The incidence also varies on patients' gender, age and season: 2.3-fold higher in male than in female, increased with age, and highest in October and lowest in August (3). In a recent authoritative review, Ackerman et al (9) made a summative assessment on the population-based estimates of SCD incidence in the young based on large medical centers from the world. The incidence differed depending on patient's age, hospitals and regions, but showed an overall range of 0.7-10.1 per 100,000 patient-years.…”