A major European project will bring together details of thousands of incidents of sudden cardiac arrest with a view to studying treatment and prevention, it has been announced.
Some 16 scientific teams are working together on the ESCAPE-NET project, which aims to collect details of 80,000 sudden cardiac arrest patients. It will also collect more than 20,000 DNA samples.
The project was announced at a conference of the European Heart Rhythm Association in Vienna, Austria, yesterday.
Dr Hanno Tan, who is leading the project, said: “Traditionally, one group of researchers studied the causes and another group studied the treatments. In this consortium we bring both groups together which enables us to examine new questions, such as whether there is a person-related factor – a comorbidity or DNA profile – that influences the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest.
"This synergy should allow us to make exciting advances in this field that were not possible before.”
Dr Tan added: "Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the top killers in industrialised societies. There are big gains to be had if we find the combinations of causes that create the highest risk and can then design the best treatments and preventive measures.
"A final aim will be education of doctors – for example the general practitioner who needs to know how to prescribe medications safely – and of the general public, who may be able to adapt their lifestyle to reduce their risk.”
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