Sudden cardiac death: epidemiologic and financial worldwide perspective

The term sudden cardiac death (SCD) implies the sudden and unexpected loss of an active, productive member of the community. SCD is typically attributed to lethal ventricular arrhythmias; however, these arrhythmias are impossible to diagnose after the fact. Epidemiologic analyses, therefore, rely on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 199 - 203
Main Authors Smith, Timothy W, Cain, Michael E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Springer Nature B.V 01.12.2006
Subjects
Cardiac arrhythmia
Cardiology
Cost analysis
Cost Control
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Death
Death, Sudden, Cardiac - epidemiology
Death, Sudden, Cardiac - prevention & control
Defibrillators
Defibrillators, Implantable - economics
Epidemiology
Global Health
Heart
Humans
Implantation
Incidence
Mortality
Prevention
Risk Assessment
Risk groups
Ventricle
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Summary:The term sudden cardiac death (SCD) implies the sudden and unexpected loss of an active, productive member of the community. SCD is typically attributed to lethal ventricular arrhythmias; however, these arrhythmias are impossible to diagnose after the fact. Epidemiologic analyses, therefore, rely on inference of the cause of death. Estimates of the incidence of are SCD variable but it may be as high as 1 per 1,000 per year. The cost of SCD to society is incalculable. Current strategies for preventing SCD rely on risk assessment for cardiology patients and implantation of defibrillators (ICD) in high risk patients. Unfortunately, the absolute number of SCDs that occur in the general (relatively low-risk) population is large compared to the number of SCDs in the high risk population. Therefore, prevention of SCD in high risk populations is unlikely to prevent the majority of SCDs. Cost-effectiveness of ICD implantation for prevention of SCD has been studied; ICDs appear to meet U.S. and European criteria for cost-effectiveness if their benefit extends to at least 7-8 years. However, therapies considered cost-effective may nonetheless be too costly for most worldwide societies. Currently, investigators are focusing on refining risk stratification, partly in hopes of identifying patients for whom ICD implantation will not be useful.
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ISSN:1383-875X
1572-8595
DOI:10.1007/s10840-006-9069-6