Epidemiology and genetics of ventricular fibrillation during acute myocardial infarction

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) from ventricular fibrillation (VF) during coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of total and cardiovascular mortality, and in more than half of SCD cases VF occurs as the first symptom of CAD. Several epidemiological studies have shown that sudden death of a family member is a risk factor for SCD and VF during acute myocardial infarction (MI), independent of traditional risk factors including family history of MI, suggesting a genetic component in the susceptibility to VF. To prevent SCD and VF due to MI, we need a better understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms causing VF in this apparently healthy population. Even though new insights and technologies have become available, the genetic predisposition to VF during MI remains poorly understood. Findings from a variety of different genetic studies have failed to reach reproducibility, although several genetic variants, both common and rare variants, have been associated to either VF or SCD. For this review, we searched PubMed for potentially relevant articles, using the following MeSH-terms: “sudden cardiac death”, “ventricular fibrillation”, “out-of-hospital cardiac arrest”, “myocardial infarction, myocardial ischemia”, “coronary artery disease”, and “genetics”. This review describes the epidemiology and evidence for genetic susceptibility to VF due to MI.