Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Cardiac Arrest May Be Predicted in Genes


Research shows that cardiac arrest may be able to be predicted by looking at genes. Cardiac arrest is a no symptom, no warning death. One second your fine the next second your dead. Using a gene test it could be predicted people who are at risk. Researchers identified fourteen gene variants that appear to be linked to cardiac arrest. People who carry these genes are three times more likely to die of cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is responsible for 325,000 deaths a year, so this finding could be very crucial for helping people with these gene variants. Four major reasons usually result to cardiac arrest including a weakened heart muscle, a heart attack, an abnormal heart rhythm, or dilation or tear in the main artery leading out of the heart, and these diseases tend to run in families. There are genetic variants that cause each of these diseases like the ones they just discovered for cardiac arrest. Comparing the gene variants found in the subjects with the four major diseases, and using control subjects they were able to find fifteen subjects with gene variants who died of sudden cardiac death. All fifteen people carried at least one of the gene variants found, and were not controls in the experiment. Hopefully with this new found gene variants they are able to screen people for if they are at risk, and do necessary treatments to lower their risk.


Article: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-11-18/gene-test-might-someday-gauge-your-cardiac-arrest-risk


Related Article: https://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/heart-attack-news-357/gene-test-might-someday-gauge-your-cardiac-arrest-risk-752232.html

3 comments:

  1. It is scary to think about genetics playing a role in sudden death. I am curious to see if these variants only have an effect if a patient has one of the four major diseases you mentioned, as I am sure that lifestyle may play a huge role as well. If the variants can be used to predict a patient's risk, it may also be beneficial to test babies when they are born for the variants so that the parents could be proactive when raising them, hopefully mitigating their risk as they get older!

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  2. Cardiac arrest is very scary because of how unpredictable it can be. If this research really works it will save millions of families that have heart issues stress and give them at least some control over their potential cause of death. Something I am curious about however is how environmental factors influence the gene variants.

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  3. Wonder if the researchers looked into the patients diet and found a pattern through perhaps the family recipe or known foods that were consistently and commonly consumed by the families? Once read about a Doctor who explained to one of his patiences with this known issue about how diet can help with certain immune health as well as Cardiovascular Health. The better your diet the healthier/stronger your body tend to be. Really interesting article... And it’s starting to make scenes to me now.

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