UVA cardiologists discover new ways to predict sudden death risk

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Cardiologists at UVA Health discovered a new indicator that a person with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is at risk of sudden death or heart failure using imaging.

One in 500 people have the genetic heart condition, and it is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death for young people.

The study, spearheaded by UVA’s cardiology chief Doctor Christopher Kramer, alongside doctors at the University of Oxford in England, looked at 2,700 patients with the heart condition, many over the course of years.

Researchers discovered better ways to predict risk factors for people with the disease. The findings are expected to save lives and prevent low risk patients from needing heart implants.

The study was also among the first to connect scarring on the heart to risk of sudden heart failure.

“This study will really change the guidelines and make it essential that patients have a cardiac MR to look for these particular markers, have these measurements made, and also this blood biomarker has never before been included in the guidelines,” said Dr. Christopher Kramer, chief of the cardiovascular division.

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