Don't Get It Wrong, This Is Different from a Heart Attack and Sudden Cardiac Arrest

JAKARTA - Heart attack and sudden cardiac death are two different conditions. This difference is emphasized by heart and vascular specialist doctor dr. Ardian Rizal, Sp.JP(K)-FIHA.

In the Pulse Day 2026 press conference entitled "From Awareness to Real Action for a Healthy Heart" at the Harapan Kita Heart and Vascular Hospital, Jakarta, Friday (13/2), he explained that sudden cardiac death is generally triggered by cardiac electrical disturbances, while heart attacks occur due to blood vessel blockage.

"Sudden cardiac death is usually due to chaotic cardiac electrical disturbances. While heart attacks are due to blockage of blood flow in the coronary vessels," said the member of the Indonesian Arrhythmia Association, as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, February 14.

As an illustration, he said that in a number of cases professional athletes collapsed while competing even though they had excellent physical condition and routinely underwent health checks.

According to him, the problem is often related to heart rhythm disorders that trigger sudden cardiac arrest.

He explained that around 26.3 percent of heart deaths are related to heart rhythm disorders.

In some patients with coronary heart disease, death also occurs due to fatal arrhythmia that appears suddenly due to damage to the heart muscle.

Doctor Ardian said that heart rhythm disorders are mild and some are life-threatening.

In some cases, this disorder only causes complaints of palpitations, but there are also those who trigger cardiac arrest in a short time.

According to Dr. Ardian, the safety rate in fatal arrhythmia cases is low. Patients with fatal heart rhythm disorders have less than a one percent chance of survival if they are not immediately treated.

Therefore, he said, it is important to understand the symptoms of cardiac arrhythmia and perform an examination earlier so that this problem can be detected early.