| Abstract | Each year, more than 300,000 people in the United States suffer from sudden cardiac death. It may be due to a combination of both structural and functional elements whereby a structural substrate is destabilized by functional elements to trigger the life-threatening arrhythmia. Common underlying aetiologies for sudden cardiac death include coronary artery diseases, myocardial diseases like hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies, electrophysiological disorders like congenital and acquired long-QT syndrome, Wolff-Parkinson-White and Brugada syndrome. The management strategies, risk stratification, primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death are reviewed. However, not only patients with high risk estimated by current predictors are prone to sudden cardiac death, most such deaths occur in the general population currently considered not to be at high risk. Thus, in order to make a significant impact on the public health, people should focus on developing effective risk markers and devising broader strategies to prevent sudden cardiac death in the general population. |
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