Adult cot death 'is hereditary'

Marc Vivien-Foe died while playing for Cameroon earlier this year

The families of people who have died from "adult cot death" should be tested for the condition, say experts.

It follows a study in The Lancet which suggests sudden adult death syndrome may be hereditary.

The condition causes previously fit and healthy young people to collapse and die with no explanation.

The British Heart Foundation said the study findings highlighted the need to test other family members for possible signs of the condition.

Young hit hardest

Some experts believe SADS claims the lives of as many as eight young people in Britain every week. It tends to affect men, many around the age of 30.

Doctors believe it may be caused by heart arrhythmias - when the heartbeat races without warning.

We would like to see further research Dr Tim Bowker, British Heart Foundation

This can cause fainting or in very rare cases collapse and death even in very young adults.

The condition grabbed the headlines earlier this year when former Manchester City footballer Marc Vivien-Foe, 28, collapsed and died while playing for his country Cameroon.

In this latest study, Professor William McKenna and colleagues from the British Heart Foundation, carried out tests on the immediate family of 32 people who had died from the disease.

They found that almost one in four families had inheritable heart disease. One in five had lost a second family member to sudden adult death syndrome previously.

These deaths occurred in over half of the families with inheritable heart disease but only 8% of those without evidence of inheritable heart disease.

"In those families diagnosed with inherited heart disease, there had been significantly more sudden cardiac deaths among relatives than in the other families," said Professor McKenna.

"If these sudden deaths had prompted family screening, particularly of relatives with symptoms, some of those deaths may have been prevented."

Dr Tim Bowker, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said further research is needed.

"We would like to see further research on sudden unexpected deaths in apparently healthy individuals, and recommend that the families of people who die from SADS are offered cardiac assessment in centres with experience of inherited cardiac disease," he said.

"We estimate that in England alone, 3,500 apparently previously healthy adults of employment age die suddenly and unexpectedly from cardiac or unexplained causes each year."