Sudden Cardiac Deaths: A Critical Analysis after Death

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a remarkable public health problem. Aim of this study was to access the prevalence of SCD death and related histological findings, in deceased that were subjected to medicolegal autopsy. This prospective cross-sectional study was carried out at Dr. Vaishampayan Memorial Government Medical College, Solapur (Maharashtra) during a period of 2012 to 2014. Complete forensic autopsies were performed in every case with relevant histopathological examinations in all cases. A total of 4993 medicolegal autopsies were performed during this period. Sudden deaths formed 397 (7.95%) of the total medicolegal autopsies. The deaths due to cardiovascular system disease contribute 40.30 % of total sudden deaths. Most of the sudden cardiac deaths were in 40-49 years of age group. Males predominates the females among all sudden cardiac deaths with male consisting 67.5% and female 32.5%. Deaths due to coronary artery disease were 116 (72.5%), of the cases of sudden natural deaths myocarditis 21 (13.12%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy 13 (8.12%) others 10 (6.25%) here histopathological examination study unmasked concealed pathologic substrates such as focal myocarditis or cardiomyopathy. This study underlines the importance of complete medicolegal investigations and importance of histopathological examinations in cases of sudden death.