Sydney Morning Herald features Centenary cardiac research

Research from the Centenary Institute showing that genetic testing can help identify the cause of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in young people who seem to have a normal heart has been featured in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“These are young people – some in their teens and 20s – who on a particular day had a cardiac arrest and for so long we didn’t know what the reason was,” said Professor Chris Semsarian AM, Head of the Centenary Institute’s Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology and senior author on the research study.

“You can do every test under the sun and you don’t find anything wrong with their heart. It looks normal, but it carries genetic mistakes.”

In their study, the Centenary researchers identified a genetic cause of arrest in 22% of the SCA survivors examined. The majority of these newly identified cases had genetic abnormalities associated with cardiomyopathy.

Dr Julia Isbister also from the Centenary Institute’s Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology said, “What we have seen here is that there is perhaps more utility for patients with no clinically identified causes to have genetic testing, now that our knowledge of cardiac arrest and genetics has advanced and we can cast a wide [genetic testing] net to get answers for patients.”

Read the full SMH news story here.

Find out more about Professor Semsarian’s research program at the Centenary Institute here.