Why did this patient experience a sudden cardiac arrest? Follow your curiosity!

When a young individual survives a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in a neurologic intact state and there is no obvious noncardiac or reversible cause identified, a defibrillator is not infrequently implanted in the absence of a complete diagnostic workup. Unfortunately, an incomplete diagnostic workup increases the odds of a wrongful diagnosis of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF), because this is a diagnosis per exclusionem. Some “true” and partially overlapping IVF subtypes, e.g. short-coupled torsades de pointes1 including the Dutch IVF subtype linked to a haplotype containing the DPP6 gene2, have been identified.

Source: Heart Rhythm - February 25, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Christian van der Werf, Arthur A.M. Wilde Source Type: research