抄録
With approximately 4–5 million sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) around the globe on an annual basis, this condition remains a significant public health problem worldwide. There is increasing recognition of the critical need for improved prediction and prevention of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), and the fact that this will be accomplished by broadening and enhancing current risk stratification methodologies. Since the overall event rate of SCD in the general population is low (60/100,000 per year), the feasibility of investigating mechanisms from existing cohort studies is limited. A decade ago, we initiated a prospective community-based case-control study among a population of approximately one million residents of the Portland Oregon USA metro area, with the overall goal of identifying risk predictors for SCA (the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, Oregon SUDS). The Oregon SUDS clinical database contains detailed information on over 2,500 SCA cases and matched controls, along with an established biobank for scientific discovery. In addition to identification of several SCA clinical risk predictors other than severe LVSD, Oregon SUDS has participated in 4 genome-wide association studies that continue to yield multiple, significant and novel genomic markers of SCA risk. I will present a summary of the overall methodology of conducting this ongoing study and selected published findings, with the overall goal of describing one successful model of conducting large, community-based evaluations of SCD.
