The New South Wales Sudden Cardiac Arrest Registry: A Data Linkage Cohort Study.

Background: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in young people aged 1 to 50 years often occurs with no presenting symptoms or risk factors prompting screening for cardiovascular disease prior to their cardiac arrest. Approximately 3,000 young Australians suffer from sudden cardiac death (SCD) each year, making this a major public health issue. However, there is significant variation in the way incidence is estimated resulting in discrepancy across reporting which impacts our ability to understand and prevent these devastating events.

Post mortem genetic testing in young individuals: What clinical medical practitioners need to know.

Forensic medical practitioners are in a unique position as they observe the exact pathology of various diseases in thousands of autopsies performed each year. Most medico-legal autopsies reveal an underlying, natural disease as the cause of death. Such data, relayed to the various stakeholders in the public health sector (including clinical medical practitioners), contribute to determining the population health status as well as identifying and dealing with priority areas.

Cardiovascular deaths: What do the genes say?

Cardiovascular deaths: What do the genes say?

Postmortem genetic testing in young individuals: What clinical medical practitioners need to know.

The death of a young person is most often a tragic occurrence, more so when this death was unexpected. Forensic pathologists are mandated to investigate such deaths, and there has been a strong move internationally towards genetic testing as an additional investigative tool. The aim of our article is to bring the advantage of implementing the so-called molecular autopsy in a local setting to the attention of medical practitioners.

The added value of molecular-based diagnostics in the African forensic medical setting.

Sudden unexpected infant death (SUDI) is reported to be an extraordinarily high burden in sub-Saharan Africa, with the incidence rate in South Africa among the highest in the world. It is common for the cause of many such infant deaths to remain unexplained even after a full medico-legal death investigation, and then to be categorised as a sudden unexplained infant death (SUID). Fortunately, advances in molecular-based diagnostics allow researchers to identify numerous underlying inherited cardiac arrhythmogenic disorders in many SUDI cases, with a predominance of variants identified in the gene.