Cardiac centre to cut sudden deaths

ONE young life could be saved each week as a result of a new screening centre for young people at risk of sudden cardiac death.

Two people under the age of 35 die each week in Ireland of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

Young men who play competitive sports are most at risk.

The Centre for Cardiovascular Risk in Younger Persons was officially opened yesterday. It will operate from Tallaght Hospital with a clinic at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, screening people for genes thought to increase the risk of the condition.

It’s believed the screening could cut the number of deaths in half, by protecting those at risk who may have to give up sport or have an internal cardioverter defibrillator, which controls abnormal heartbeats, inserted.

Project director, Dr David Mulcahy, said the unit would accept about 1,000 referrals a year, and those with a family history of sudden cardiac death would be a priority.

“If we have a family who have sudden adult death in the family, the first people who will be screened will be brothers and sisters, and the parents, because it’s very important to try and find where it came from.

“If there’s a positivity, then the screening will be expanded to include the cousins of the child who died, so that’s why it’s such a time-consuming, labour-intensive job,” he said.

Dr Mulcahy said those found to be at risk would be treated quickly, and waiting lists were not anticipated.

“If we heard someone was at risk we would deal with them as quickly as possible. The whole idea of the unit is speedy investigation, complete investigation and speedy treatment,” he said.

It is estimated that the unit will cost €1 million a year to run for the next three years.

This will be funded privately by interest groups and businesses, and the board hopes that the

Department of Health will begin to take over the running of the unit in 2011, if it proves successful.

It will also get funding from Cardiac Risk in Young People. This organisation was set up by Marie Greene from Cork, who lost her son, Peter, to cardiac death in 1996.

“This clinic, which we have all worked so hard to set up, will prevent other families suffering as we did,” she said.

Her daughter, Julie McMahon, had her two-year-old son screened.