Risk stratification for sudden cardiac death.
Recent advances in pharmacological and device-based therapies have provided a range of management options for patients at risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Since all such interventions come with their attendant risks, however, stratification procedures aimed at identifying those who stand to benefit overall have gained a new degree of importance. This review assesses the value of risk stratification measures currently available in clinical practice, as well as of others that may soon enter the market. Parameters that may be obtained only by performing invasive cardiac catheterisation procedures are considered separately from those that may be derived using more readily available non-invasive techniques. It is concluded that effective stratification is likely to require the use of composite parameters and that invasive procedures might only be justified in specific sub-groups of patients.
Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK. ins20@cam.ac.uk
Ian N
IN
Sabir
Juliet A
JA
Usher-Smith
Christopher L-H
CL
Huang
Andrew A
AA
Grace
D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004562:Electrocardiography; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors