|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
How To Prevent Sudden Cardiac Death? It is not uncommon to hear about the sudden passing of people who are practically healthy. Among those victims, some were young athletes. How did all these happen? According to cardiologists, this is almost always due to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), a condition in which the heart stops pumping effectively as a result of a life-threatening heart rhythm like ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF). Being abnormal heart rhythms originating from the lower heart chambers, both VT and VF can result in ineffective pumping and a severe drop in blood pressure, which would decrease the blood flow to the brain causing the person to be unconscious. The person can die if the condition is not treated immediately. This is so-called sudden cardiac death (SCD). Presence of undetected or unrecognized underlying heart disease, especially serious blockage of the heart arteries, is the most common cause for SCD. The risk of SCA can increase up to 10 times for those who have underlying heart artery disease and up to 4 times for those who have risk factors for heart artery disease. Risk factors include high blood cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, excessive alcohol consumption (6 or more drinks per day) or binge drinking, and a family history of heart artery disease or heart attack. More than 60 percent of the patients with underlying heart artery disease die from SCD. For people below the age of 35 years, SCD is due mainly to underlying inherited heart disease, of which the most common cause is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). HCM is very common and can affect people of any age. About one out of every 500 people has HCM. It affects men and women equally. It occurs if heart muscle cells enlarge and cause the walls of the ventricles (usually left ventricle) to thicken, which may block blood flow out of the ventricle or result developing of life threatening heart rhythms like sustained VT or VF.
Some people who have HCM have no signs or symptoms as HCM does not affect their daily lives. Others might have severe symptoms and complications, for instance, they might have shortness of breath, serious arrhythmias, or an inability to exercise. While not too many SCA victims could survive to provide information on preceding symptoms, a 10-year study of 839 patients with SCA published in ‘the Annals of Internal Medicine’ in January 2016 provided some data on warning symptoms preceding SCA. The symptoms preceding SCA were obtained from the surviving patient, from family members, witnesses at the scene of the event, or medical records from the 4 weeks preceding the event. Analysis of the results showed that 51 percent had warning symptoms within 4 weeks preceding SCA, 34 percent had symptoms more than 24 hours before SCA and 80 percent had symptoms at least one hour before SCA. Chest pain (almost half) and shortness of breath (almost one fifth) were the most common symptoms. There is evidence that the risk of SCA rises during vigorous exercise and this risk extends up to 30 minutes’ post-exercise, though in absolute terms, the risk is still low, occurring 1 per 1.51 million episodes of vigorous exercise. Likelihood of SCA can be reduced if appropriate precautionary measures are taken. Inactive middle aged or older folks who have risk factors for heart disease should seek their doctor’s advice before starting vigorous exercise. Regarding young people who are engaged in competitive sports, there are different views on how pre-participatory screening should be carried out. The American Heart Association suggests only questionnaires and examination, from a national economic perspective and cost consideration. On the other hand, the European Society of Cardiology, have pre-participatory screening using examination and routine 12-lead electrocardiogram. But from an individual perspective, the guidelines from the cardiology organizations also indicate that the use of 12-lead electrocardiogram and ultrasound of the heart will better detect underlying inherited heart disease that cannot be discovered purely from history taking and physical examination. This is especially useful if there is a family history of SCD.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
