Sudden, Unexplainable Deaths Rising in Numbers

Sudden, Unexplainable Deaths Rising in Numbers
According to a report published in the online journal Heart, the number of mystery deaths that occur each year may be up to 8 years higher than what was previously thought.

The study put the fatality figures from arrhythmic death syndrome at 500 deaths per year and added that most of those dead were young men.

While most sudden adult death syndrome (SADS) has been linked to genetic heart ailments, only one-third of the deaths had been rightly identified during post-mortem, the study noted. Few cases were due to epilepsy or drowning, the article said.

Researchers collected data from 115 coroners covering the time period between 1997 and 1999. Out of these cases, 56 cases of SADS were identified and analyzed. From this sample, researchers noted that the number of SADS cases per 100,000 was 0.16, which was considerably higher than the national statistics figures.

While it was observed that unexplained deaths claimed people between the age group of 7 to 64, most deaths were of young men (63%) with an average age of 32.Another interesting observation was that none of those dead had a history of heart disease, although few had reported cardiac symptoms earlier and 4 of the cases complained of heart symptoms 48 hours before the time of death.

Genetics was also included as a major reason of these sudden deaths. According to the report, one in five cases had reported a case of sudden death in their family. Authorities have said the report highlights the need to be particularly careful and be under frequent monitoring if one had a family history of SADS. Those with incidences of SADS in the family need to seek specialist help as they may be under a risk of death as well, the report suggested.