| Popis: |
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of cardiovascular mortality, accounting for more than 50% or greater than 300,000 deaths in the United States annually. As such, this is a major health care problem. Identifying high risk patients that may benefit from preventative strategies has been studied for decades. The implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICDs) has had a major impact on the treatment of SCD. However, this therapy has been largely used in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. A changing epidemiology of SCD with fewer patients having marked reductions in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) has renewed the focus on identifying other high risk populations. This chapter summarizes the current understanding of the diverse clinical, genetic, electrocardiographic and imaging techniques available to detect patients most at risk. Despite many identified risk factors, no single predictor has been shown to have sufficient predictive value to be used to guide preventative therapy and reduce mortality. More recent effort has been directed towards combining markers to increase the sensitivity of identifying high risk cohorts. |
