Abstract

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is often associated with ischemic heart disease, and is thus a widespread problem. In many cases, we have learned to assess the risk of SCD in advance. Historically, the reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) has remained an important value for SCD, but today it has been found that heart failure patients with preserved LVEF may also have a risk of life-threatening arrhythmia. The type of cardiomyopathy, myocardial fibrosis (detected with MRI), and the presence of a known high-risk gene should also be assessed. The most common and effective primary prevention method for SCD is an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator that terminates ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, which could lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Furthermore, to reduce symptoms, heart failure treatment improves left ventricular systolic function and survival. Today, class I and III antiarrhythmics are not used for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death.