Sudden and unexpected heart-related deaths in children are most common during teenage years, according to research from the UK’s national cardiac pathology referral centre at City St George’s, University of London.
Published
The researchers say that the findings have important implications for heart screening and prevention strategies.
They examined 624 hearts from cases of sudden cardiac death in children aged one to 17 years old over nearly three decades between 1994 and 2023, making it one of the largest studies of its kind.
Sudden cardiac death in children was found to happen most often at two time periods - during the first year of life and again during teenage years between 13 and 17. They also found that boys were affected twice as often as girls across all ages.
Dr Joe Westaby, lead author and Clinical Lecturer in Histopathology from the School of Health and Medical Sciences at City St George’s, University of London, said:
In most cases (63%), the team found that a condition called sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) was the cause, which is when someone dies suddenly after a cardiac arrest with no obvious reason for it. In 15% of cases, the cause was a disease affecting the heart muscle, known as a cardiomyopathy. Other less common causes included heart inflammation, heart defects present at birth, and abnormal arteries in the heart.
They identified that around one in five deaths (21%) happened during or just after exercise. Even more concerning was the finding that only 11% of children had shown any heart-related symptoms before death, highlighting how these conditions often go undetected.
Implications for screening
Dr Joe Westaby added:
The research was published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, and funded by Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).