Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
SUDDEN death is a well-recognized outcome of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It occurs at an annual rate of 3 percent, often in young patients,1 2 3 4 in whom the most likely precipitating mechanism is an arrhythmia.1 Ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation, atrial tachycardia, flutter or fibrillation, asystole, and complete heart block all occur in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Because such patients are sensitive to marked changes in heart rate and the loss of the atrial contribution to diastolic filling, all these arrhythmias are potentially lethal. Unfortunately, few clinical variables can reliably predict sudden death.1 2 3 4 Only ventricular tachycardia on electrocardiographic monitoring7 , 8 and a family history of . . .
Nicod et al. (Thu,) studied this question.