SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH

Authors

  • Waqar A. Mufti

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) may be defined as unexpected death, usually instantaneousbut uniformly fatal within one hour of onset of the terminal symptoms. If death is unwitnessed, theindividual should have to have been seen alive in the past 24 hours for the death to be considered asSCD.1 The highest incidence of SCD is in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).Approximately 40% of patients may die due to acute coronary thrombosis and never reach hospital.In patients who survive the acute phase of myocardial infarction, the mortality rate in the first yearis 1-20% with 50 of these deaths being sudden.

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