Sudden Cardiac Death: How Much Can We Predict?

A healthy person suddenly collapses with cardiac arrest. A young man dies in his sleep. How can the heart stop beating without warning? Professor Jacob Tfelt-Hansen, cardiologist and researcher into sudden cardiac death, explores how science can explain and perhaps prevent these tragedies.

His research shows that examining the deceased's heart and genes combined with family studies can uncover hereditary heart disease—even when the heart appears normal at autopsy. But discovering a hereditary risk is not the same as being able to predict who will be affected. People in the same family can carry the same genetic variation without all suffering cardiac arrest.

Join a conversation about how research pushes the boundaries between the unexpected and the preventable—and how we move from giving people knowledge of risk to giving them certainty for their lives.