Sudden Cardiac Death - Arrythmia

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

We are all aware of the consequences of the 'clogged arteries'

version of heart disease, and that risk factors for this problem are

enormously improved by CRON. But another form of heart problem, less

discussed here, is 'arryhthmia'. I remember JW posted some stuff

about this here a while ago. At the time, given that we don't hear

much about it, I assumed it was a comparatively rare occurrance. The

following, if accurate, suggests it may not be:

" A quarter of all deaths in the United States — about a thousand

deaths a day — are sudden cardiac deaths, which are unexpected and

occur within an hour of the time symptoms first appear. Sudden

cardiac deaths, in turn, are often linked to ventricular arrhythmia. "

What is more:

" Identifying Patients Who Will Benefit From These Treatments Is

Difficult.

" Patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death are hard to identify.

Targeting the patients who can benefit from these specific therapies

aimed at cardiac arrhythmias is difficult. Researchers evaluated the

possibility of distinguishing patients at risk for sudden vs.

nonsudden death using clinical characteristics (obtained from

administrative data and chart reviews). Unfortunately, they were not

able to identify significant differences between the two groups. They

concluded that standard clinical evaluation is much better at

predicting the overall risk of death than at predicting whether it

will be sudden or nonsudden. "

Source: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/suddcard.htm

So. Do we have information about the effects, if any, of CR on

sudden cardiac death? Or is this a type of heart problem to which we

should be paying close attention?

Rodney.