scholarly journals Dealing with Sudden Cardiac Death: Who Deserves Device Implantation

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1 (P)) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Dicky Armein Hanafy

Sudden cardiac death is one of the leading causes of death in the western industrial nations. Most people are affected by coronary heart disease (coronary heart disease, CHD) or heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). These can lead to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. If the heartbeat is too slow due to impulse or conduction disturbances, cardiac pacemakers will be implanted. High-frequency and life-threatening arrhythmias of the ventricles (ventricular tachycardia, flutter or fibrillation) cannot be treated with a pacemaker. In such cases, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) is used, which additionally also provides all functions of a pacemaker. The implantation of a defibrillator is appropriate if a high risk of malignant arrhythmias has been established (primary prevention). If these life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias have occurred before and are not caused by a treatable (reversible) cause, ICD implantation will be used for secondary prevention. The device can stop these life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias by delivering a shock or rapid impulse delivery (antitachycardic pacing) to prevent sudden cardiac death. Another area of application for ICD therapy is advanced heart failure (heart failure), in which both main chambers and / or different wall sections of the left ventricle no longer work synchronously. This form of cardiac insufficiency can be treated by electrical stimulation (cardiac resynchronization therapy, CRT). Since the affected patients are also at increased risk for sudden cardiac death, combination devices are usually implanted, which combine heart failure treatment by resynchronization therapy and the prevention of sudden cardiac death by life-threatening arrhythmia of the heart chambers (CRT-D device). An ICD is implanted subcutaneously or under the pectoral muscle in the area of the left collarbone. Like pacemaker implantation, ICD implantation is a routine, low-complication procedure today.

ESC CardioMed ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 2337-2341
Author(s):  
Jens Cosedis Nielsen ◽  
Jens Kristensen

The most common reason for sudden cardiac death is ischaemic heart disease. Patients who survive cardiac arrest are at particularly high risk of recurrent ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, and are candidates for secondary prevention defined as ‘therapies to reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death in patients who have already experienced an aborted cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias’. The mainstay therapy for secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death is implantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Furthermore, revascularization and optimal medical therapy for heart failure and concurrent cardiovascular diseases should be ensured.


ESC CardioMed ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 2337-2341
Author(s):  
Jens Cosedis Nielsen ◽  
Jens Kristensen

The most common reason for sudden cardiac death is ischaemic heart disease. Patients who survive cardiac arrest are at particularly high risk of recurrent ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, and are candidates for secondary prevention defined as ‘therapies to reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death in patients who have already experienced an aborted cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias’. The mainstay therapy for secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death is implantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Furthermore, revascularization and optimal medical therapy for heart failure and concurrent cardiovascular diseases should be ensured.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-227
Author(s):  
Janet H. Wilenky ◽  
Hsin Chang

Myocardial infarction, myocardial ischemia, ventricular dysrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death occur most frequently in the morning, especially in the first few hours after awakening. Among individual patients, however, this pattern may vary widely. Up to 80% of individuals who suffer sudden cardiac death have coronary heart disease; the epidemiology of sudden cardiac death to a great extent parallels that of coronary heart disease. This review describes circadian patterns in cardiovascular disease processes and analyses the findings of recent studies by searched, from PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus databases in a time period between late 1970s through July 2013. The circadian pattern of numerous cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, stroke) reveals a peak in the early hours of the morning, which occurs in more than 20% of patients with arterial hypertension, and can be regularly detected in combined 24-h-ABPM/EKG examinations. The awareness of an increased incidence of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death in the early morning hours, shortly after waking, has stimulated an interest in the relationship of these events and the occurrence of both silent and symptomatic myocardial ischaemia. A number of studies have been reported that examine both the physiological triggers and the underlying causes of these events. Beta-adrenergic blockers have been shown to abolish the early morning peak of myocardial infarction and blunt the morning peak in sudden cardiac death. Newer calcium antagonists, such as amlodipine, have been demonstrated to control angina throughout a 24-hour period. Aspirin is effective in preventing morning infarction. Approaching the pathophysiology of circadian time-dependent sudden cardiac death has implication for future prevention and treatment.


Circulation ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 522-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline S. Fox ◽  
Jane C. Evans ◽  
Martin G. Larson ◽  
William B. Kannel ◽  
Daniel Levy

2009 ◽  
Vol 211 (S660) ◽  
pp. 203-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Eliot ◽  
James C. Buell ◽  
Theodore M. Dembroski

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makhabbat Bekbossynova ◽  
Ainur Akilzhanova ◽  
Zhannur Abilova ◽  
Ayan Abdrahmanov ◽  
Omirbek Nuralinov

Introduction: Cardiac arrhythmias are the most common cause of mortality and sudden cardiac death worldwide. In the past decade, genetic factors underlying arrhythmogenic diseases have been revealed and given novel insights in to the understanding and treatment of arrhythmias predisposing one to sudden cardiac death.Material and methods: We conducted a pilot genetic screening of two patients with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) and 14 patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) for genetic variants in the human ryanodine receptor gene 2 (hRYR2). The most relevant 45 hot-spot exons of hRYR2 were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and directly sequenced.Results: One novel mutation in a CPVT patient (c.A13892T; p.D4631V) and a novel mutation in a VT patient (c.G5428C; p.V1810L) were identified. Both variants are located at phylogenetically conserved positions and predicted pathogenesis. Three known synonymous SNPs (rs3765097, rs2253273, and TMP ESp1 237664067) were detected in the study group. No further variants within the target regions were detected in the study group.Conclusion: The results of study can be applied to risk asssessment for life-threatening arrhythmias and assist in development of appropriate strategies for prevention of sudden cardiac death. The implementation of these strategies would assist in the management of patients with genetically determined arrhythmias in Kazakhstan.


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