Scientists find exact strand of DNA that causes some to drop down dead – raising hopes of new test

A GENETIC breakthrough offers new hope of beating the hidden condition that causes heart failure in athletes such as footballer Fabrice Muamba.

The discovery links a mutated gene with heart muscle disease ARVC which damages the wall of the heart and makes it beat erratically.

It often strikes without warning and is thought to kill hundreds of fit young Britons every year.

But the South African-led team’s findings could lead to a screening programme for those at risk.

Researcher Prof Bongani Mayosi said: “This will permit the possible targeted treatment of heart muscle disease.”

Muamba, then 23, was saved by doctors after collapsing during a televised game between Bolton and Spurs in 2012.

Dr Steven Cox, from Cardiac Risk in the Young, said: “Whilst these findings are interesting in helping us to gain a better understanding of the possible and complex causes of conditions such as ARVC that can lead to young sudden cardiac death, we should currently be more concerned with promoting the availability of proven techniques of identifying hidden underlying abnormalities in all young people – whether the cause is inherited or not.

“And, as has been shown in a major, international research paper published just last month, the ECG is the gold standard test for screening for these conditions and is available for young people aged 14 and 35 as well as professional athletes, here and now.

“Genetics is an exciting area of medical research that clearly has an important role but unfortunately genetic or ‘cascade’ testing – and the subsequent investigations – only usually begin once a tragedy has occurred.

“For bereaved families, this is too late.”