A team of researchers has confirmed the findings presented by a long-running Medtronic study which linked a specific genetic mutation to a higher risk of deaths from sudden cardiac arrests.

As per official reports, more than 300,000 Americans die from sudden cardiac arrests. In the recent study announced on Monday by the device maker Medtronic, researchers found link between a single genes. They also found nearly 50% odds of heart rhythms called ventricular tachyarrhythmias, which can turn fatal.

As per study researchers, the link does not prove that a genetic abnormality can cause the danger. Doctors can use the discovery to help identify candidates for implanted defibrillators that avert cardiac arrest, they said.

According to Samir Saba, chief of cardiac electrophysiology at Downtown-based UPMC, this is a step forward in the right direction. The published guidelines clearly focus upon heart muscle strength when doctors consider the implants for patients without past cardiac problems, said Dr. Saba.

He said the approach lacks some sophistication, leaving a lot of at-risk people without the device and others with implants they won’t need.

According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, fatality rates run about 90% among patients who suffer sudden, nontraumatic cardiac arrest outside a hospital.

Dublin-based Medtronic, the largest medical device company in the world funded the research presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in London.

The work involves two studies, one of which is based out of St. Marien-Hospital Mulheim in Germany that involved 1,145 patients in Europe, whereas the other is an ongoing effort led through the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.