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Clinical expression of cardiac sudden death syndrome

Abstract:

Objective: To describe the clinical expression of cardiac sudden death syndrome in populations from Ciudad de La Habana over 2000-2004. Design: Observational, descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional. Methods: The natural deaths attributable to cardiac causes over 5 years determining which of them were sudden. The SUCADES I study (Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome) was conducted in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality with a population of 210 000 inhabitants and included 5 098 deceases from natural death, from which 474 were sudden deaths. The clinical expression of the syndrome was documented from the time of appearance, time of onset of the premonitory symptoms and warning symptoms in instantaneous and non-instantaneous events. The place of presentation included the outside hospital environment. Results: The 45,4% of sudden events were instantaneous, the 38,2% occurred during the first hour of the onset of symptoms at 06.00-11.59 hours (30%). The consciousness loss (72,4%) and dyspnea (36,9%) were the more frequent premonitory symptoms of instantaneous ad non-instantaneous death, respectively. The 66,2% of cardiac arrest occurred outside the hospital mainly at home of victims (35,0%). Conclusions: Clinically, the sudden death is characterized by the consciousness loss (instantaneous) during the first hour of symptoms onset, at home and at 06.00-11.59 hours.