Update of the guidelines on sudden cardiac death of the European Society of Cardiology

The guidelines for the prevention of suddencardiac death (SCD) were published in the August issue of the European Heart Journal in 20011 and the Executive Summary was published in theJanuary issue of Europace.2 In the last 12 months, the release of important data has affected risk stratification and management of patients at riskof dying suddenly. Based on this evidence, the members of the Task Force on SCD of the ESC have decided to revise the original document. Theupdated version of the full document will be published on the ESC website. Here, we review the evidence that has led to the update of two sections: (1) primary prevention of SCD in post-myocardial infarction (MI) and heart failure, and (2) primary prevention of SCD in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).