Sudden unexplained death in the young - a genetic approach to non-structural cardiac defects

ABSTRACT

Sudden unexpected death syndrome [SUDS] is the abrupt, unexpected natural death of an apparently healthy individual. In many cases, the cause of SUDS in young people is a genetic heart disorder. These disorders may be structural abnormalities, which are responsible for a large majority of cases, or arrhythmogenic abnormalities, which account for only a small minority of cases [e.g. long QT syndrome, Burgada syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia]. Mutations in the genes responsible for these arrhythmogenic abnormalities as well as modes of inheritance and clinical presentations will be shortly discussed