Prospective Countywide Surveillance and Autopsy Characterization of Sudden Cardiac Death: POST SCD Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death (SCD) use emergency medical services records, death certificates, or definitions that infer cause of death; thus, the true incidence of SCD is unknown. Over 90% of SCDs occur out-of-hospital; nonforensic autopsies are rarely performed, and therefore causes of death are presumed. We conducted a medical examiner-based investigation to determine the precise incidence and autopsy-defined causes of all SCDs in an entire metropolitan area. We hypothesized that postmortem investigation would identify actual sudden arrhythmic deaths among presumed SCDs.

Methods

Between February 1, 2011, and March 1, 2014, we prospectively identified all incident deaths attributed to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (emergenc

SUBMITTER: Tseng ZH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6013842 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature