SADS Foundation :: Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation

Please Download the following PDF's to help you start your Family Pedigree:

Family History Sheet  This will help you begin to document your family.

Sample Letter to Family Members  Use this letter to send to a distant family member.

Saving Lives Through Family Medical History

Do you know which side of the family (your mother's or your father's) your Long QT Syndrome came from? Are there family members who might have inherited Brugada Syndrome that don't know they should be tested? The number one warning sign of SADS is having a family history of unexpected, unexplained sudden death in a young person under the age of 40.  These deaths can also include sudden drownings, single car accidents or babies who die from SIDS.

Researchers and experts like Dr. Michael Vincent and Dr. Michael Ackerman have long relied on family history to assist them in their diagnosis of inherited cardiac arrhythmias. Collecting detailed medical histories from their patients greatly aided Doctors Vincent and Keating and their colleagues in the discovery of the first chromosomal locations of genes causing an abnormally long QT interval.

Completing your family health history (or pedigree) can save lives directly. After a child is diagnosed with LQTS or any other arrhythmia, other siblings may be at risk, as well as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Your family pedigree can identify other family members who may be at risk but don't know about it. They should be tested with ECGs and genetic testing so that they can get treated to prevent a tragic death.

The SADS Foundation is launching a Family Pedigree Project to create broader awareness of the importance of family history and to provide information, materials, and support to assist patients and families to identify additional family members at risk, contact their family members and urge them to get tested.

Family Pedigree Project

The Family Pedigree Project will assist SADS families to map out their own pedigrees to identify other individuals who may be at risk.  Figure 1 shows how you can start your own personal pedigree or family tree with your immediate family.  Squares represent males, while circles are females.  Colored in circles or squares represent people with a SADS condition.