Aborted Sudden Cardiac Death in a Young Adult: An Exceptionally Rare Cause

Abstract

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has an underlying cardiac cause in the vast majority of adult patients, most frequently related to an acute manifestation of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Nonetheless, it represents a relatively uncommon event in young adults and athletes, and a thorough investigation of less frequent causes is warranted in this subset. Anomalous origin of a coronary artery is an important, under-recognized, cause of sudden cardiac death in young patients and athletes. Anomalous left coronary artery from pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is an exceptionally rare variant of these congenital coronary artery origin and/or trajectory anomalies. This case reports the association of ALCAPA with sudden cardiac death in a young patient and highlights some important diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.