Abstract: The sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the primary cause of death in adults. 118 cases of sudden cardiac death from 1998 to 2005 in Shanxi area were studied. The results showed that there as 5.9 times of males as females. There were 55.1% coronary artery diseases, 17.8% myocarditis, 9.3% cardiomyopathy, 2.5% each of congenital heart diseases, valvular heart diseases, and rupture of dissecting aneurysm of aorta, and 4.55 of other diseases. The data indicate that SCD happened in males more often than in females and coronary artery disease was the most common disease. Myocardititis was more common in adolescents and cardiomyopathy was more prevalent in young adults resulting in SCD. The cardiac disease without abnormal structure changes might also be a serious threat to human health.

Key words: sudden cardiac death, analysis cause of death, risk factors, retrospective study