An autopsy record study of neoplastic lesions of heart in sudden deaths

Abstract

World Health Organization (WHO) defines sudden death as "deaths within 24 hours from the onset of the symptoms". It is also defined as death which is sudden, unexpected, clinically unexplained, or otherwise obscure even though there needs to be no unnatural element in their causation. Patients with neoplastic diseases, especially malignancies, are at greatly elevated risk of sudden death, because they may suffer from a variety of neoplasms. Majority of neoplasm-related sudden deaths (NSDs) are caused by neoplasm’s affecting critical organs such as the heart and brain. To study the different histomorphological neoplastic lesions of heart in sudden deaths.A total of 1500 hearts were studied. All the sudden deaths which happened in hospital from 1997 to 2016 were included in the study.In 20 years (1997-2016) nearly 1500 hearts were studied for sudden deaths in our institute. In our autopsy series, only secondary cardiac tumours were seen in 05 cases and caused sudden Ischemic heart disease were reported in 250 (17%) cases and left ventricular hypertrophy in 145(9.60%) cases. Altogether hypertensive heart diseases contributed about 26% of total sudden deaths. A routine health check up of the people after 40 years along with conducting system is need of the hour.