Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been identified as one of the strongest blood pressure-independent risk factors for sudden death, acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and other cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Hypertensive patients with LVH have a significantly greater prevalence of premature ventricular contractions and complex ventricular arrhythmias than do pa...

Africa is facing a huge health burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Cardiovascular disease is becoming an important cause of mortality in Africa. Unfortunately, statistics on the incidence of cardiovascular disease in Africa are not readily available and in many sub-Saharan African countries there is no information or only poor-quality data.

Sudden cardiac death is defined as unexpected death from cardiac causes early after or without the onset of symptoms. Having in mind that acute myocarditis may be a rare cause of sudden cardiac death in children, we have undertaken the following study: clinical, macroscopical and histopathological characteristics of the myocardium of two autopsied children who died suddenly. A number of myocard...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relation between alcohol intake and sudden cardiac death--ie, death within one hour of the onset of symptoms. DESIGN Prospective study of a cohort of men followed up for eight years. SETTING General practices in 24 towns in England, Wales, and Scotland. SUBJECTS 7735 men aged 40-59 at screening who were selected at random from one general practice in each of 24 tow...

BACKGROUND Prior studies have demonstrated a link between the metabolic syndrome and increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Whether the metabolic syndrome is associated with sudden cardiac death is uncertain. METHODS AND RESULTS We characterized the relationship between sudden cardiac death and metabolic syndrome status among participants of the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities)...

The European Society of Cardiology has convened a Task Force on Sudden Cardiac Death in order to provide a comprehensive, educational document on this important topic. The main document has been published in the European Heart Journal in August 2001. The Task Force has now summarized the most important clinical issues on sudden cardiac death and provided tables with recommendations for risk str...

Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that long-chain n-3 fatty acids may protect against sudden cardiac death, the leading cause of mortality in hemodialysis patients. Here we investigated whether long-chain n-3 fatty acids have a protective relationship with sudden cardiac death in 100 patients who died of sudden cardiac death during the first year of starting hemodialysis and 300 patie...

BACKGROUND There have been few reports that have analyzed the predictive factors for heart failure death, which is sub-divided into pump failure death and sudden cardiac death, in the long term. METHODS AND RESULTS We followed 186 consecutive patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and 115 consecutive patients with non-ischemic heart failure (NIHF) during 73+/-3 months. In the MI group, 26 d...

We report our first results of monitoring sudden ionospheric disturbances (SID). We present data taken continuously for two weeks during 20th Sept. 2002 and 4th Oct. 2002. We compare the effects of solar flares of the VLF signal with those obtained by GOES Satellite of NASA monitoring in X-rays and found excellent agreement.

BACKGROUND Although nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) have been positively associated with coronary heart disease risk factors, limited and inconsistent data are available on the relation between NEFA and sudden cardiac death. METHODS AND RESULTS Using a prospective design, we studied 4657 older men and women (mean age, 75 years) from the Cardiovascular Health Study (1992-2006) to evaluate the...