Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesCohort study
Countywide burden, pathology, and genetics of lethal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: from the POST sudden cardiac death (SCD) study
- Prospective cohort study
- countywide
- post-mortem
All incident cases 2/1/2011-3/1/2014 (n = 525), then approximately every third day 3/1/2014-9/1/2022 (n = 497)
Authors' conclusion
In this 11-year countywide post-mortem study, HCM meeting pathologic, clinical, or genetic criteria was associated with autopsy-confirmed arrhythmic cause of sudden death, accounting for 2% of SADs up to age 90, highest in cases <35 years old.
Study context
- Population
- Presumed SCDs (WHO criteria) aged 0–90 years in San Francisco County
- Participants
- 1,022 pSCDs
- Exposure
- pSCDs with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) vs without HCM
- HCMn = 13
- Without HCMn = 1,009reference
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Burden of HCM among pSCDs
- pSCDs with HCM
- 13
- Arrhythmic deaths among HCM cases
- 11
- Burden of sudden death (pSCD)
- 1.3%
- Burden of arrhythmic death
- 2%
- Pre-mortem diagnosis of HCM
- 2 of 13 (15%)
- Incidence, persons with HCM 18-35 years, pSCDs/year
- 0.2%
- Incidence, persons with HCM 18-35 years, SADs/year
- 0.1%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Arrhythmic cause of death
P = 0.03
pSCD burden due to HCM by age
- Decreased with age
- P = 0.003
- Age <35 years: share of pSCD
- 7.1%
- Age <35 years: share of arrhythmic death
- 9.4%
Genetic testing of 317 consented pSCDs
- Pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants
- 40% (2/5)
- identified one additional case without clinical phenotype
Original publication
Countywide burden, pathology, and genetics of lethal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: from the POST SCD study. Europace. Published 18 April 2025. doi:10.1093/europace/euaf088
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it