Although approximately seventy-five percent of sudden death victims have a history of heart disease or damage, arrhythmias may strike young and apparently healthy men and women. In addition, among those who have heart disease, it is usually an acute lethal arrhythmia rather than sudden deterioration of the heart that kills. Despite being a major health problem, arrhythmia causes, prevention, and treatment are poorly recognized or misunderstood. The Texas Arrhythmia Institute appreciates the urgent need for increased public awareness of the problem presented by arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. The Institute was founded to fill this need and to promote essential research of the understanding and treatment of arrhythmias.
Cardiac arrhythmia is the leading cause of death in the Western world.
Every minute a person in the United States dies instantly and unexpectedly, such that, in the United States alone, some 500,000 people die suddenly each year. Few people realize that an overwhelming majority of these fatalities are due to arrhythmias-disturbances in the otherwise regular and automatic beating of the heart. Although approximately seventy-five percent of sudden death victims have a history of heart disease or damage, arrhythmias may strike young and apparently healthy men and women. In addition, among those who have heart disease, it is usually an acute lethal arrhythmia rather than sudden deterioration of the heart that kills. Despite being a major health problem, arrhythmia causes, prevention, and treatment are poorly recognized or misunderstood.