Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the abrupt loss of heart activity due to an irregular heart rhythm. The person becomes unconscious and without immediate treatment, SCA can lead to death.
Impact of Gene Variants
Genetic testing identifies a disease-causing variant in 10% of apparent SCA survivors. The majority of disease-causing variants are located in cardiomyopathy-associated genes, highlighting the arrhythmogenic potential of such variants.
Ways to Recognize Problems
Symptoms of SCA are immediate and severe and include sudden collapse, no pulse, no breathing, and loss of consciousness. Sometimes other symptoms occur before SCA, these might include chest discomfort, shortness of breath, weakness, and fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart
Ways to Improve
Emergency treatment for SCA includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and shocks to the heart with a device called an automated external defibrillator (AED). Survival is possible with fast, appropriate medical care.
Did you know
There are more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually in the U.S., nearly 90% of them fatal.The incidence of EMS-assessed non-traumatic OHCA in people of any age is estimated to be 356,461, or nearly 1,000 people each day.
