Professor Sanjay Sharma's webinar on the importance of CRY’s research

As CRY Chief Executive Dr Steven Cox said when introducing this presentation and Q&A session, “internationally, CRY is known as a charity which has led the way in funding research into young sudden cardiac death.” Professor Sanjay Sharma has been leading CRY’s research programme over the past 25 years, helping develop research that has transformed our understanding of the causes and prevention of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD), and the treatment of those at risk.

To look at some of the developments of CRY’s research and its importance, Professor Sharma hosted a live 15-minute presentation. This covered several key areas, including how CRY’s research has shed light on the incidence of YSCD, the causes of sudden cardiac death, the interpretation of autopsy findings, the evaluation of first degree relatives of victims of sudden cardiac death, identifying the prevalence of serious cardiac diseases in the young population, and refining cost effective methods for identifying and treating young people with cardiac conditions.

Professor Sharma began by looking at a CRY research paper published in 2009, entitled “The magnitude of sudden cardiac death in the young: a death certificate-based review in England and Wales” (Papadakis M, Sharma S, Cox S, Sheppard MN, et al. Europace, 2009). This study examined sudden cardiac deaths in England and Wales and helped further CRY’s early efforts to identify the incidence of YSCD.

From there, Professor Sharma looked at more studies which examined unexplained deaths in young people, and research that shows how often underlying conditions can be genetic.

He added further insight on how CRY research developed our ability to detect conditions through new refined, internationally recommended ECG guidelines; protocols on how to investigate families that have suffered a sudden cardiac death, which are now used nationally to test affected families; and ultimately how vital it is to identify cardiac conditions early with the ECG, which is where CRY’s screening programme is leading the way in screening tens of thousands of young people every year and saving lives.

To finish, Professor Sharma answered questions from CRY supporters.

You can watch the full presentation from Professor Sharma on CRY's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCt98xYM0zE

To find out more about CRY's latest research developments, you can read the 2020 issue of CRY's Research Highlights here: https://issuu.com/cardiacriskintheyoung/docs/cry_research_highlights_2020.