Deaths from Brugada 2017 to 2021

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3066

You asked

I would be very grateful if you were able to provide me with the following statistics:

Brugada deaths = people diagnosed with Brugada who have died for any reason.

Type 1 Brugada deaths : year 2021 to date
Type 2 Brugada deaths : year 2021 to date
Number of people diagnosed with both types of Brugada in 2021 to date.

Type 1 Brugada deaths : year 2020
Type 2 Brugada deaths : year 2020
Number of people diagnosed with both types of Brugada in 2020.

Type 1 Brugada deaths : year 2019
Type 2 Brugada deaths : year 2019
Number of people diagnosed with both types of Brugada in 2019.

Type 1 Brugada deaths : year 2018
Type 2 Brugada deaths : year 2018
Number of people diagnosed with both types of Brugada in 2018.

Type 1 Brugada deaths : year 2017
Type 2 Brugada deaths : year 2017
Number of people diagnosed with both types of Brugada in 2017.

We said

Thank you for your request.

ONS are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is derived from death certificates in the process of death registration. If you require Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics, please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.

Type 1 and type 2 Brugada

All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) the coded mortality data available up to end of December 2019 is coded to version 2014 of the ICD10 framework. From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as:

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or

b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury

If Brugada is reported on the death certificate and type 1 or type 2 is specified, then these will both fall under the ICD-10 code defined by WHO. Brugada Syndrome is defined under ICD-10 code 'I49.8' - (Other specified cardiac arrhythmia). We do not hold raw data for Brugada split by type and are unable to provide mortality splits by type due to the non-standardised way causes of death are recorded on the death certificate. For example, a certifying doctor/coroner could record the death as 'Brugada' without detailing that it was type 2, therefore when this cause of death is coded it would be an underestimate type 2 deaths.

Brugada mortality data

ONS have published mortality data by cause in the explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice

• Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
• Select Date - years available from 2013 to 2020
• Select Age - All ages or 5 year age bands.
• Select Gender - Total or Male/Female
• Select rates - All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
• Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available). (I49.8)
• Select format (Excel or CSV for example)  

Please see extracted figures below for 'I49.8' deaths between 2017 to 2020, England and Wales. Analysis on data for 2021 has not yet been finalised. This will be published in July 2022.

We do not hold diagnosis information on Brugada. As ONS data is taken from the death certificate, unless Brugada is either stated as an underlying cause of death or as a contributory cause (mention) we are unable to note if a diagnosis of Brugada is on the deceased's patient record.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry regarding Brugada diagnosis statistics. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

If you would like to discuss this request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.