We thank Dr. Weir for the insightful comments in regard to our recent report (1). We wholeheartedly agree with the assertion that biomarkers may play a role in prediction of risk of sudden cardiac death in combination with electrical and structural assessments of the heart. It would be expected that inclusion of specifics of the surface electrocardiogram such as QT variability and novel imaging...

thanatology is the academic study of dying, death and grief. it encompasses thoughts, feelings, attitudes, events and the psychological mechanisms of dealing with them. death obsession includes ruminations, repetitive, intrusive thoughts or images about death. death obsession in the nursing profession can occur on a daily basis, and communication with dying patients can be stressful for nurses....

Prediction of primary cardiovascular events has been thoroughly investigated since the landmark Framingham risk score was introduced. However, prediction of secondary events after initial events of coronary artery disease (CAD) poses a new challenge. In a cohort of coronary angiography patients (n = 1760), we examined readily available hematological parameters from the UPOD (Utrecht Patient Ori...

The current study tested competing predictions regarding the effect of mortality salience on delay discounting. One prediction, based on evolutionary considerations, was that reminders of death increase the value of the present. Another prediction, based in part on construal level theory, was that reminders of death increase the value of the future. One-hundred eighteen participants thought abo...

Although identification and management of cardiovascular risk markers have provided important population risk insights and public health benefits, individual risk prediction remains challenging. Using sudden cardiac death risk as a base case, the complex epidemiology of sudden cardiac death risk and the substantial new funding required to study individual risk are explored. Complex epidemiology...

Meningococcal disease is a global burden and remains one of the leading infectious causes of death in children, with an estimated annual death rate of 170,000 worldwide. Despite these figures, the management of children with severe meningococcal sepsis and septic shock remains suboptimal. This review presents an overview of this condition including the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manif...

suggest that management of vascular risk and comorbidity is important for improvement of long-term outcomes after firstever IS. These study results are important to understand stroke mortality in an Israeli population. Baseline information on IS mortality at the regional or national level is necessary for management of risk factors affecting mortality from IS, because rates of stroke mortality ...

Correspondence to: Dr Anthony W C Chow, The Heart Hospital, UCLH NHS Trust, 16–18 Westmoreland Street, London W1G 8PH, UK; anthony.chow@uclh. nhs.uk _________________________ T he definition of sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains controversial. Many such deaths are not witnessed, and without cardiac monitoring at the time of death the assumption of an underlying arrhythmic cause is speculative. ...

A great deal of evidence suggests that reminders of mortality increase in-group support and worldview defense, presumably in order to deal with the potential for anxiety that roots in the knowledge that death is inevitable. Interestingly, these effects are obtained solely when thoughts of death are not in the focus of consciousness. When conscious, death-related thoughts are usually defended ag...

Hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (HICH) has been on the decline. However, mortality at long-term follow up is on the increase. The aim of the present study was to investigate early warning signals of death in patients with acute HICH. The medical records of 128 patients with acute HICH within 6 h of onset were retrospectively analyzed. For these patients, systolic blood pressure (BP) was r...