Pludselig hjertedød: Hvor meget kan vi forudse?

A seemingly healthy person collapses with cardiac arrest. A young person dies in their sleep. It seems incomprehensible that the heart can stop beating without warning. But how much of what takes us by surprise can research explain – and perhaps prevent?

This is what professor and cardiologist Jacob Tfelt-Hansen is investigating. His research shows how examining the deceased person’s heart and genes, alongside examinations of their family, can reveal inherited heart disease. Even when the heart appears normal at a post-mortem examination, there may be an explanation if you look for long enough.

Identifying an inherited risk, however, is not the same as being able to predict who will be affected. People in the same family can carry the same genetic change without all of them suffering cardiac arrest. Jacob Tfelt-Hansen and his colleagues are therefore working to understand what makes the difference, and how that knowledge can be used to protect those at risk.

How far are we from being able to detect the risk before the first death occurs? And what can doctors do when they find it? A conversation about how research is shifting the boundary between the unexpected and what we can prevent – and about the difference between knowing your risk and being certain that your life is safe.

On stage

Jacob Tfelt-Hansen is Professor of Forensic Cardiology and Deputy Head of Research at Retsmedicinsk Institut at Københavns Universitet, and a cardiologist at Hjertemedicinsk Afdeling, Rigshospitalet. His research focuses on sudden cardiac death and inherited heart diseases.

Programme for Thursday 22 October 2026

17.00 Doors open, and Universitetsbiblioteket offers a glass of wine or water, included in the ticket price. 17.30 Conversation on stage lasting approximately 45 minutes, followed by questions from the audience (without an interval). 19.00 Universitetsbiblioteket closes.

Also available as a podcast

This evening’s conversation will be recorded and released as a podcast the following week. You can find the entire series on all podcast platforms by searching for ‘Verden forsøgt forklaret’.

Verden forsøgt forklaret is a series of conversations about what shapes our shared world

Each week’s guest contributes research-based perspectives on topics in public debate – the things we talk about, vote on, argue over and come together around. Gain insights with some of the country’s leading researchers as they take to the intimate stage at the historic Københavns Universitetsbibliotek in Fiolstræde to offer their take on the facts behind current debates on topics that matter.

The series is supported by Novo Nordisk Fonden.