Heart rate may provide key to sudden death control
ECG evidence of ventricular premature beats may provide early warning that a patient with coronary heart disease may be about to experience ventricular fibrillation that could lead to sudden death
Medical trail blazers searching for ways to reduce the incidence of sudden death may find a foot path faster going than the main highway, suggests Bernard Lown, MD, associate professor from Harvard University School of Public Health.
Although primary prevention of coronary heart disease is obviously important, he said, it is not likely to yield immediate results. However, control or prevention of the factor precipitating sudden death —ventricular fibrillation—could be very significant.
"We are no further today than we were 20 years ago when it comes to coping with primary prevention of atherosclerosis," in Dr. Lown's opinion, and "there's no definitive evidence showing treatment of atherosclerosis reduces death due to coronary
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