What is SADS?

SADS stands for Sudden Arrhythmic Death and this is part of sudden cardiac death. However, SADS is defined as a sudden death whereby subsequent post mortem analysis and a toxicology screen fails to identify any obvious cause. In our experience, almost all of these conditions are due to an electrical fault that cannot be picked up at post mortem. So sudden adult death syndrome is part of sudden cardiac death but does not make up all the sudden cardiac deaths because sudden cardiac deaths are due to not just SADS but also the cardiomyopathies, the anomalous coronary arteries, premature coronary artery disease and valvular diseases as well.