Not All Sudden Death Is the Same

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Abstract
Udden death as a result of cardiac arrhythmia is probably the most common symptom associated with cardiac disease. It occurs not only in people with known cardiac disease, most notably congestive heart failure, but also in young, apparently healthy individuals who have no apparent structural heart disease. Frequently, in this latter group, these fatal arrhythmias are associated with exercise and increased -adrenergic stimulation. One possible mech- anism for how these arrhythmias could occur in otherwise "normal" individuals is an aberrant release of Ca2 from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), which in turn could cause delayed afterdepolarizations1 that can trigger potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmias.