Apr 03, 2014 01:54 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

A simple blood test may be able to predict the risk of sudden cardiac death, according to a recent study.

Samuel Dudley's discovery of the first blood test to predict a person's risk for sudden cardiac death will enable physicians to more quickly and accurately assess a patient's need for an implantable cardiac defibrillator.

Dudley is the chief of cardiology at the Cardiovascular Institute at Rhode Island, The Miriam and Newport hospitals.

"This is the first test of its kind; never before have clinicians been able to accurately assess a patient's risk of sudden cardiac death by performing a blood test," Dudley said in a statement. "The primary prevention model for at-risk patients in the U.S. is to implant an implantable cardiac defibrillator before a cardiac event happens. While it's better to be safe, this has led to widespread overuse of implantable cardiac defibrillator throughout the [United States] and abroad."

Dudley added that the blood test could refine the need for such a device, and instead implant the cardiac defibrillators only in the most severe cases of sudden cardiac death risk.

Currently, heart risks assessments are determined by measuring the fracturing of blood ejected from the heart in any one heartbeat.

 When the ejection fraction falls below 35 percent, a patient may benefit from an implantable cardiac defibrillator. It is believed that approximately 60 percent of patients who receive defibrillators as a result of these assessments may not actually need one.

 This blood test, which is currently in a pilot phase, will determine more accurately which patients do in fact need the defibrillator.

"Health care is much more advanced here, but in developing countries, doctors wait until a person has survived a cardiac event before implanting a defibrillator -- and only 10 percent survive the initial event," Dudley said. "But with a blood test, patients could be easily tested before an event and be implanted with an ICD, if appropriate."

Sudden cardiac death is an unexpected death caused by loss of heart function, or sudden cardiac arrest. It is the most common cause of natural death in the United States, resulting in approximately 325,000 adult deaths each year.

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