The 4 warning symptoms that strike in the days before sudden adult death syndrome revealed
SUDDEN adult death syndrome (SADS) strikes around 500 people in the UK every year.
It describes when someone’s heart stops beating suddenly and often without clear cause.
Now, researchers have identified warning symptoms that commonly appear in the days before SADS – in the hopes of catching the sudden cardiac event early and preventing premature deaths.
Dr Matilda Frisk Torell of Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said: “SADS has not been well evaluated despite being one of the most common underlying causes of sudden cardiac death in young people, including young athletes.
“We conducted an analysis of a large cohort of cases of sudden cardiac death in Sweden to describe the incidence of SADS and to characterise frequent findings that occurred before death to highlight opportunities for prevention.”
SADS is also known as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome and it describes when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body, which stops the person breathing, thus starving their brain of oxygen.
The heart’s rhythm is controlled by electrical impulses.
If these electrical impulses go wrong it can result abnormal heart rhythm known as an arrhythmia – some of which are dangerous if left untreated and can cause a cardiac arrest.
As the heart’s rhythm and electrical impulses stop after death, it can be hard to find the cause of the cardiac arrest because the structure of the heart may still look normal.
This is when SADS is diagnosed.
Researchers looked at 903 cases of sudden cardiac deaths that occurred in young people aged between one and 36 years in Sweden between 2000 and 2010.
They combed through death certificates, autopsy reports, medical records, electrocardiograms (ECGs), any biological samples and data from parents.
SADS was found to have been the cause of 22 per cent of these sudden cardiac deaths.
Almost two-thirds of the SADS cases (64 per cent) were male, with an average age of 23.
Around half (52 per cent) of the people who passed away from SADS experienced symptoms beforehand:
These included:
- Palpitations
- Fainting
- Nausea and vomiting
- Signs related to suffering from an infection
Thirty three per cent of the SADS patients had been previously visited A&E or been hospitalised 180 days before their death.
Fainting episodes were behind 4.2 per cent of SADS’s sufferers hospitalisations.
Heart attack vs cardiac arrest
A heart attack is not the same as a cardiac arrest.
A heart attack is when one of the coronary arteries becomes blocked. The heart muscle is robbed of its vital blood supply and, if left untreated, will begin to die because it is not getting enough oxygen.
A cardiac arrest is when a person’s heart stops pumping blood around their body and they stop breathing normally.
Many cardiac arrests in adults happen because of a heart attack. This is because a person who is having a heart attack may develop a dangerous heart rhythm, which can cause a cardiac arrest.
A heart attack and a cardiac arrest are both emergency situations.
A cardiac arrest is caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, which happens when the electrical system in the heart isn’t working properly.
Not all abnormal heart rhythms are life-threatening, but some mean that the heart cannot pump blood around the body.
If someone is in cardiac arrest, they collapse suddenly and:
- will be unconscious
- unresponsive, and
- not breathing or not breathing normally – this may mean they’re making gasping noises.
Without immediate treatment, the person will die.
If you see someone having a cardiac arrest, phone 999 immediately and start CPR.
Source: NHS
Meanwhile, 3.5 per cent of them were treated for convulsions, also known as seizures.
Only 11 per cent had previously been diagnosed with heart rhythm issues and 18 per cent of them had ECGs that revealed some sort of heart condition.
A condition called pre-excitation – where part of the cardiac ventricles are activated too early – was the most common finding.
In total, 17 per cent had been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition and 11 per cent had been prescribed drugs for it.
Dr Frisk Torell said: “With increased knowledge of the signs and symptoms that may precede SADS, such as [fainting], seizure-like episodes and pre-excitation, we may be able to identify young people at risk during healthcare visits.
“Our results also highlight the need for further study of psychiatric disease and treatment as risk factors for SADS and the potential for gastrointestinal symptoms and infectious diseases to act as triggers in predisposed individuals.”