Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
Yousef Etoom
University of Toronto, Canada
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Pediat Therapeut
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in children and adolescents are rare. The underlying cardiac disease associated with SCA varies with age. For children two years old or younger, congenital heart disease is the predominant cause of SCA. For older children and adolescents, there is no dominant cause of SCA. Cardiac disorders include congenital heart disease, primary arrhythmias. Genetic cardiac diseases associated with SCA and SCD include cardiomyopathies, ion channelopathies resulting in conduction defects and familial Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The immediate cause of SCA and SCD appears to be a life-threatening and often lethal ventricular tachyarrhythmia. Although SCA is often the initial presenting event, warning signs or symptoms (e.g., chest pain, fatigue, seizures and syncope/light headedness) are noted in at least 40% and up to 70% of individuals prior to SCA. Other disorders that need to be distinguished from an underlying cardiac disease include vasovagal syncope, migraine headaches, seizures, musculoskeletal conditions that present with chest pain, asthma, near-drowning and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Preventive strategies to reduce SCD include primary screening to identify and manage at-risk individuals and secondary prevention with successful resuscitation of individuals with SCA.
Yousef Etoom is an Assistance Professor at University of Toronto, Department of Pediatrics and Staff Physician of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children, Staff Pediatric Cardiology and Post-Graduate Medical Education Director of Pediatric Department at St. Joseph Health Center, Toronto, Canada. He has received his Medical degree from Jordan University of Science and Technology and earned his Fellowship training in Pediatric Intensive Care, Cardiology and Pediatric Emergency at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. He holds a Master’s degree of Health Professions Education, Joint program of Maastricht University with Suez Canal University.
Email: yousef.etoom@sickkids.ca