Date of Publication

8-7-2025

Document Type

Bachelor's Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biology major in Medical Biology

Subject Categories

Public Health

College

College of Science

Department/Unit

Biology

Thesis Advisor

Ma. Luisa D. Enriquez

Defense Panel Chair

Jennifer Maries G. Yap

Defense Panel Member

Eligio Santiago V. Maghirang
Roberto M. Demigillo, Jr.

Abstract (English)

Bangungut is a colloquial term for sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome (SUNDS) in the Philippines which has its folklore dimension in the country. Such a clinical entity has perplexed experts for years due to forensic autopsy examinations of deceased healthy patients presenting absence of a definitive etiology. This systematic review aims to synthesize clinical evidence on SUNDS presenting a comparison of research findings across local and foreign literature while also suggesting key implications and offering important clinical insights. A total of 746 records from PubMed and Scopus Elsevier were obtained and only 12 studies were included in the review. Majority of the included studies were from China; the rest were from Thailand and Japan. Two studies were included from the Philippines and is the only country to have employed conventional autopsy among SUNDS cases. Findings in the clinical inquiry on SUNDS appear to suggest that it is largely associated with cardiac conduction abnormalities due to mutations detected on genes of ion channels and proteins that mediate the physiologic cardiac cycle and maintain its integrity which may develop into fatal arrhythmias leading to cardiac failure. However, not all detected variants have a clear pathologic role rendering these with unknown clinical significance warranting further investigation. In a similar way, while genotype and allele frequencies of SUNDS and Brugada Syndrome (BrS) demonstrate the likely possibility of establishing these two as distinct clinical entities, the pathological mechanisms of detected variants still remain to be explored. With the study of bangungut restricted to traditional and local autopsy, the significant evidence of normal hearts found in cases makes the clinical recognition of bangungut as SUNDS plausible. This review provides a means to characterize the occurrence of SUNDS and as it presents a probable case of electrical activity defects in the heart, future studies on bangungut are encouraged to employ techniques that study SUNDS cases in the lens of molecular pathology and the characterization and deeper clinical basis of bangungut will surely emerge.

Abstract Format

html

Abstract (Filipino)

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Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Keywords

Sudden death

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Embargo Period

8-10-2026

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Available for download on Monday, August 10, 2026

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