Risk stratification of sudden cardiac death: a review
Jacob Tfelt‐Hansen, Rodrigue Garcia, Christine M. Albert, José Luís Merino, Andrew D. Krahn, Éloi Marijon, Cristina Basso, Arthur A.M. Wilde, Kristina H. Haugaa
Abstract
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is responsible for several millions of deaths every year and remains a major health problem. To reduce this burden, diagnosing and identification of high-risk individuals and disease-specific risk stratification are essential. Treatment strategies include treatment of the underlying disease with lifestyle advice and drugs and decisions to implant a primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) and perform ablation of the ventricles and novel treatment modalities such as left cardiac sympathetic denervation in rare specific primary electric diseases such as long QT syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. This review summarizes the current knowledge on SCD risk according to underlying heart disease and discusses the future of SCD prevention.