Frequently Asked Questions

Screening with an ECG is aimed at identifying people with cardiomyopathies or electrical disorders of the heart. In answer to the question, electrical abnormalities can be excluded with a one-off ECG, provided the patient has no symptoms. However, the situation is quite different with the cardiomyopathies. Let me give you the example of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic

We aspire to speak to all young individuals having cardiac screening because there’s a lot of anxiety associated with screenings. Unfortunately, some of these screening programmes are very large, involving 200 people on any given day and it’s very difficult to have a detailed discussion with a cardiologist if there are 200 people wanting the same

Sudden cardiac death can be simply defined as a sudden death from a cardiac problem within 12 hours of witnessed normal health.

Hypertension or a high blood pressure is usually familial, by that I mean it runs in families. If you have a parent that has high blood pressure, there's a very high chance that that individual will develop high blood pressure. High blood pressure is an important problem because it can cause stroke, it can cause heart

A family history of hypercholesterolemia is very, very important. Familial hypercholesterolemia means that an individual has a very high circulating cholesterol concentration. Cholesterol is a major risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, by that I mean furring up of the coronary arteries. People with familial hypercholesterolemias usually have heart attacks in their twenties and thirties.

A family history of ischemic heart disease may be important in the assessment of a young individual for conditions that cause sudden cardiac death. You may be aware that 25% of the British population will die from ischemic heart disease so it’s very common for us to obtain a family history of ischemic heart disease; grandma

Heart murmurs can be due to numerous things. They can be due to a problem with the heart valves, they may be due to a hole in the heart. Some children when they are born are identified with a heart murmur that is usually due to a hole in the heart. In many situations, if that

Cardiomyopathies are usually familial, by that I mean they run in families and they are inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. That is to say that if a parent has a cardiomyopathy, there's a 50% chance that the cardiomyopathy will be transmitted to any one of their offspring. So in the context of a family history

Obesity predisposes to cardiac problems, it predisposes to high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiomyopathy. Obesity in itself is a separate morbid entity, it does not overlap with the genetic and congenital conditions that cause sudden death in young, apparently healthy individuals or athletes. Having said that, obesity needs to be tackled and maintenance of a body

At the CRY screening programme, the upper age limit for screening is 35 years of age and there's an excellent reason for this. If one examines the epidemiological data on sudden cardiac death, then most deaths in people aged 35 or under are due to hereditary conditions affecting heart muscle and the electrical system of the