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. 2018 Jun;30(3):194-200.

Can sudden cardiac death in the young be predicted and prevented? Lessons from autopsy for the emergency physician

[Article in English, Spanish]
Jennifer L White  1 , Anna Marie Chang  2 , Sergi Cesar  3 , Georgia Sarquella-Brugada  4
Affiliations
  • PMID: 29687676
Free article

Can sudden cardiac death in the young be predicted and prevented? Lessons from autopsy for the emergency physician

[Article in English, Spanish]
Jennifer L White et al. Emergencias. 2018 Jun.
Free article

Abstract
in English, Spanish

Sudden unexpected death in the young, though rare, is devastating for both the family and the community. Although only 1.3 to 8.5 cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD) occur per 100 000 young people, autopsy is often inconclusive. Many causes of SCD are related to autosomal dominant inherited risk, however; therefore, answers are important for survivors. Causes of autopsy-positive SCD in young patients include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. Autopsy-negative SCD has been related to inherited arrhythmogenic causes such as long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, Wolff- Parkinson-White syndrome, and idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. The important question for the emergency physician is how SCD can be predicted and prevented in the young so that there is no need for an autopsy.

La muerte súbita e inesperada en jóvenes es un evento raro pero devastador. Aunque su incidencia es baja, se registran de 1,3 a 8,5 casos de muerte súbita cardiaca (MSC) por cada 100.000 jóvenes y se asocia frecuentemente con una autopsia negativa. Muchas de las causas de la MSC con autopsia negativa se heredan de forma autosómica dominante. Algunas causas de MSC con autopsia positiva en pacientes jóvenes incluyen la miocardiopatía hipertrófica (MCH) y la displasia arritmogénica de ventriculo derecho. Las causas de autopsia negativa incluyen causas arritmogénicas heredadas, como el síndrome de QT largo, el síndrome de Brugada, la taquicardia ventricular polimórfica catecolaminérgica, el syndrome de Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) y la fibrilación ventricular idiopática. La pregunta importante para los profesionales de urgencias es: ¿cómo podemos predecir y prevenir la MSC en los jóvenes antes de la autopsia?

Keywords: Autopsy; Autosomal dominant; Autosomal dominant disorder; Sudden unexpected death.

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