Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure: A 20-Year Perspective from a Mediterranean Cohort.

BACKGROUND The prediction of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in heart failure (HF) remains an unmet need. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of SCD over 20 years in HF outpatients managed in a Mediterranean multidisciplinary HF Clinic, and to compare the proportion of SCD (SCD/all-cause death) to the expected proportional occurrence based on the validated Seattle Proportional Risk Model (SPRM) score. METHODS This prospective observational registry study included 2,772 HF outpatients admitted between August 2001 and May 2021. Patients were included when the cause of death was known and SPRM score was available. RESULTS Over the 20-year study period, 1,351 (48.7%) patients died during a median follow-up period of 3.8 years (interquartile range 1.6-7.6). Among these patients, the proportion of SCD out of the total of deaths was 13.6%, while the predicted by SPRM was 39.6%. This lower proportion of SCD was observed independently of left ventricular ejection fraction, ischemic etiology, and the presence of an implantable cardiac defibrillator. CONCLUSIONS In a Mediterranean cohort of HF outpatients, the proportion of SCD was lower than expected based on the SPRM score. Future studies should investigate to what extend epidemiological and guideline-directed medical therapy patterns influence SCD.