Update on sudden cardiac death: Epidemiology and risk stratification

In this article, a discussion is presented on the following aspects of sudden death, related to legal medicine. The epidemiological aspects and diseases associated with sudden death are discussed first. This is followed by presenting the chain of events leading to the final arrhythmias triggering sudden death, and the legal aspects of this. This is a comparative study of the final arrhythmias responsible of sudden death in patients with: (1) acute myocardial infarction; (2) with no apparent heart disease; and (3) with heart failure. A comparison is also made between the incidence of ischaemic heart disease, acute coronary thrombosis, and left ventricular hypertrophy.