Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2018 Jun;11(6):e005757.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCEP.117.005757.

Nationwide Study of Sudden Cardiac Death in People With Congenital Heart Defects Aged 0 to 35 Years

Thomas Hadberg Lynge  1 , Alexander Gade Jeppesen  2 , Bo Gregers Winkel  2 , Charlotte Glinge  2 , Michael Rahbek Schmidt  3 , Lars Søndergaard  2   4 , Bjarke Risgaard  2 , Jacob Tfelt-Hansen  2   4
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Nationwide Study of Sudden Cardiac Death in People With Congenital Heart Defects Aged 0 to 35 Years

Thomas Hadberg Lynge et al. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Congenital heart defects (CHD) are among the leading causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young. Nationwide incidence of SCD in people with CHD (SCD-CHD) has not been established in the young general population. The aims of this study were to investigate incidence of SCD-CHD and whether incidence of SCD-CHD in infants declined after implementation of nationwide fetal ultrasound screening in Denmark.

Methods: All deaths (n=11 451) among people aged 0 to 35 years in Denmark in 2000 to 2009 (24.4 million person-years) were included. Danish death certificates, autopsy reports, records from hospitals and general practitioners, and data from nationwide Danish registries were used to identify SCD-CHD cases.

Results: We identified 90 (11%) cases of SCD-CHD from 809 SCD. The incidence rate of SCD-CHD was 0.4 per 100 000 person-years among people aged 0 to 35 years. In total, 53 (59%) were diagnosed with CHD before death. Incidence of SCD was 9.6× higher among patients with CHD compared with people without CHD (P<0.01). Annual incidence of physical activity-related SCD-CHD among patients aged 2 to 35 years diagnosed with CHD was 0.9 per 100 000. The annual incidence rate of SCD-CHD in infants declined after implementation of nationwide fetal ultrasound screening (incidence rate ratio, 3.8; P<0.01).

Conclusions: The proportion of SCD-CHD in the young was 11%, which is higher than previously reported. Physical activity-related SCD-CHD was a rare event among patients with CHD. We observed an ≈4-fold lower incidence of SCD-CHD among infants born after implementation of nationwide screening.

Keywords: death, sudden, cardiac; exercise; heart defects, congenital; incidence; sports.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources