Sudden Cardiac Death and Arrhythmias

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) and arrhythmia represent a major worldwide public health problem, accounting for 15-20 % of all deaths. Early resuscitation and defibrillation remains the key to survival, yet its implementation and the access to public defibrillators remains poor, resulting in overall poor survival to patients discharged from hospital. Novel approaches employing smart technology may provide the solution to this dilemma. Though the majority of cases are attributable to coronary artery disease, a thorough search for an underlying cause in cases where the diagnosis is unclear is necessary. This enables better management of arrhythmia recurrence and screening of family members. The majority of cases of SCD occur in patients who do not have traditional risk factors for arrhythmia. New and improved large scale screening tools are required to better predict risk in the wider population who represent the majority of cases of SCD.

Public-Access Defibrillation in Sudden Cardiac Arrest

“…According to [37,38] effective training of nonprofessionals in the basic CPR/AED increases the long-term survival (by the 30th day and 1 year of observation). It was also shown that well-trained EMS managers were able to improve CPR carried out by first responders [1,39,50].…”

“…In those hospital units where quick access to manual defibrillators can be provided, manual defibrillation should be conducted either by trained medical personnel or the resuscitation team-this is preferred to the use of the AED because it reduces the time from the onset of the SCA to the first shock. However, in such cases, experience in the visual analysis of the electrocardiogram (ECG) is required [1,50]. The European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015 for the use of automatic and manual defibrillators for the PAD are based on the studies conducted in the United States and Australia [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

The study of antiarrhythmic activity of some derivatives of 7-alkyl-8-piperazine-3-methylxanthine

“…Despite huge improvements in cardiovascular care in the past 30 years and the decline in cardiovascular deaths over the past several decades due to improved preventative strategies, the incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) as a proportion of overall cardiovascular deaths has increased. SCD and arrhythmia continues to represent a major international public health problem and is still the biggest killer worldwide, accounting for 17 million deaths every year with sudden cardiac death accounting for 25 % of these [7]. Medical therapy with class IC agents or amiodarone to prevent SCD has been shown to be to be ineffective [4].…”

“…The aim of the study: to investigate antiarrhythmic activity of some newly synthesized derivatives of 7-alkyl-8-piperazine-3-methylxanthine [compounds [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]and possible mechanisms of their antiarrhythmic action in the models of arrhythmias.…”

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest‐mortality score (SCA‐MS): A novel score to predict long‐term survival after sudden cardiac arrest

“…Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a public health problem accounting for 50% of total cardiovascular deaths and 15–20% of all‐cause mortality in the western world . An estimated 180 000 to 300 000 cases of sudden cardiac death occur annually in the United States …”