Spotlight on cardiac research
Lead investigator Dr Liz Paratz - Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
Approximately one-third of young adults in Victoria who experienced sudden cardiac deaths outside of a hospital from 2019 to 2021 used illicit drugs prior to their fatal events, a study by researchers at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute has found.
The study, published in the journal,Heart Rhythm, found astonishingly highlevels of illicit drugs than is typical for that population, as well as a greater prevalence of multiple substance use with cannabis the most common illicit drug identified.
Whilst the exact mechanism of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the context of illicit drug use is unclear, the researchers found that the over representation of drug use in these young people in the absence of elevated rates of cardiac conditions suggests that it contributes to SCD independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Sudden cardiac death is a major global health issue that clinicians and researchers are grappling with. It represents 50% of all cardiovascular deaths and occurs unexpectedly in people without prior history of cardiac disease or a known predisposition for it.
Lead investigator, Dr Liz Paratz, said " As clinicians in Melbourne, we frequently see complications of illicit drug use in young people. We noticed a consistent trend of illicit drugs involved in our registry’s young SCD cohort and were very keen to tease this out further. We found the prevalence of illicit drug use in young SCD patients was astonishingly high at almost one in three cases and exceeds reported rates in the young population".
The analysis of data on substance abuse was revealed through positive toxicology reports and patient histories and recorded in one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive sudden cardiac death registries, the unexplained cardiac death project led by the Baker Institute.