Association of minor heart anomalies with risks of sudden cardiac death

The review focuses on the analysis of study results related to a possible arrhythmogenic effect of minor heart abnormalities and their significance in the stratification of sudden cardiac death risks. Risk stratification of sudden cardiac death is a challenging problem of modern cardiology. Ventricular arrhythmias followed by asystolia are considered to be the main mechanisms of sudden cardiac death development. The incidence of sudden cardiac death is not high in general population but in absolute values it is significantly higher than that in high risk patients. Therefore, additional identification of sudden cardiac death risks in general population and prevention measures seem to be of special interest. Some researchers think that connective-tissue dysplasia followed by the formation of minor heart abnormalities might serve as a potential substrate for arrhythmia development and describe their arrhythmogenic effect. However, the association of minor heart abnormalities with sudden cardiac death risks is not well studied. The literature gives some data on sudden cardiac death incidence in some connective-tissue pathologies, but no variants of minor heart abnormalities leading to sudden cardiac death are described both in domestic and foreign literature. Also, the patients with these pathologies are not included in the sudden cardiac death high risk group.