Electrical faults that can be fatal

TWELVE apparently fit and healthy young people die suddenly every week in the UK due to an undiagnosed heart condition, according to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

‘Not everybody that is a victim of sudden death presents with a collapse,’ says Sanjay Sharma, a professor of cardiology at St George’s Hospital in London and a consultant for CRY. ‘ Some may have an unexplained drowning or road traffic accident, or even an epileptic fit, because if the heart is not working well, the brain doesn’t get blood, and one of the symptoms of this is a seizure.’

In many cases the heart structure itself is normal and the issue is due to a problem with the electrical wiring within the heart.

Professor Chris Gale, a consultant cardiologist at Leeds General Infirmary, says: ‘The heart has an inbuilt electrical system that allows for the orderly contraction of the top two chambers, which pump blood into the big pumping chambers below, which then contract.

‘All of this takes less than a second. When the electrical circuits of the heart go awry, the heart beats with an abnormal rhythm, which interrupts steady blood flow.

‘The problem may be minor and cause palpitations, or, rarely, life-threatening and lead to a cardiac arrest.’

Many conditions — lots of them hereditary — can lead to sudden cardiac death, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle thickens for no clear reason, causing an irregular heart beat.

This disease led to the death of broadcaster Sir David Frost’s eldest son, Miles, who inherited it from his father.