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Join this journey through the heart and explore the latest research advances on arrhythmias and sudden death at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital
Did you know? The SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital Arrhythmias and Familiar Cardiopathies Unit conducts research to improve the detection and treatment of heart diseases in children and prevent sudden death syndrome. With the Science Agora materials, you will delve into the fascinating world of the heart — the engine that keeps us alive — and discover the latest research findings on arrhythmias and sudden death at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital.
Learn about the heart, cardiac arrhythmias, and their consequences
Did you know that, without our heart—the main organ in the circulatory system—our body wouldn’t be able to function? Without our heart, we couldn't play, run or jump. Discover the function of the heart, the engine of life, in our body.
What is a cardiac arrhythmia, and what are its possible consequences? Explore what happens when structural or cellular failures in the heart cause a change in its heartbeat rhythm.
Sudden death has a significant impact on families and society. At the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, we conduct research to improve the detection and treatment of heart diseases in children and prevent sudden death syndrome. Find out!
Irregular heartbeats: Brugada syndrome
The heart is the organ in charge of keeping blood moving around our body. It is like an engine that keeps our body working thanks to its special electrical system. If this system fails, it causes a problem known as a channelopathy, which can make the heart malfunction. We explain it to you!
Each heartbeat pumps blood to every part of our body. Do you know what causes a heartbeat? It is with the help of a part of our heart called the sinus node. This area produces electrical impulses that are transmitted to the heart's cells to create a heartbeat. Our heart beats with every electrical impulse produced in the sinus node.
Electricity in the heart
As you have seen, the cells of the heart are in charge of transmitting electrical impulses generated in the sinus node to produce a heartbeat. But how do heart cells transmit electrical impulses? They do it through small gates in their membranes known as ion channels. Let's learn about what happens when these channels malfunction.
Brugada syndrome is a rare genetic heart disease that causes the ion channels to malfunction. This leads to a subsequent failure in the transmission of electrical impulses that generate heartbeats. This, in turn, can lead to severe arrhythmia and sudden death syndrome.
Brugada syndrome
Brugada syndrome is a cardiac channelopathies
Remember that these diseases are genetic in origin, meaning they are caused by a genetic mutation that can be passed from parent to child.
Research is vital to develop new diagnostic and treatment strategies and prevent sudden death syndrome. It is a key task at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital. Let’s learn why.
Research to move forward
Sudden death syndrome in children and adolescents is a rare occurrence that can manifest at any age. Although it only affects a small percentage of the population, it has a monumental impact on the family of the deceased and on wider society.
Cases of sudden death syndrome in children and young adults vary between one and five in every 100.000 inhabitants.
Diagnosis of rare paediatric heart diseases before they progress to sudden death syndrome completely changes the trajectory of the disease. If we know a disease is present, we can treat it. That makes it change from a disease that can cause sudden death to a chronic disease with minimal risk to life. That's why it is crucial to collect as much information as possible about the potential causes in order to improve diagnostic, treatment and prevention strategies.
At SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital we conduct research on cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.
We study the genes involved in cases of sudden death to understand the causes, identify risk factors, and develop new diagnostic and treatment strategies that can help prevent sudden death and the significant impact it has on society.
SJD Investiga
At the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, we have a remote-monitoring research programme to detect cardiac arrhythmia. Discover what it’s all about!
Ester Costafreda, Co-founder of the SAMS association, explains her personal story and the experience her daughter has had with the remote monitoring program.
At the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, we study the possible genetic alterations associated with conditions that can cause an unexpected death: sudden death. We explain it in this video.
At the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital we investigate new ablation techniques to treat cardiac arrhythmias in children. Discover what ablation is, what it's used for, and the improvements we've made to this technique.