Left ventricular non-compaction of myocardium in forensic autopsy

Left ventricular non-compaction of the myocardium is a rare cardiac disorder characterized by prominent meshwork formation and deep intertrabecular recesses of the left ventricle. Echocardiography provides clinical diagnosis of the non-compaction region, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish this disorder from cardiomyopathies of other types. This report describes two autopsy cases of sudden death with suspicion of this disease. One was a 38-year-old woman who was found to have died in a bathtub while taking a shower. The other, a 28-year-old man, was found early in the morning dead on his bed. Postmortem examination revealed characteristic features of left ventricular non-compaction, which included trabeculation and staghorn-like ventricular recess, accompanied by endocardial fibrosis in histology. Left ventricular non-compaction of the myocardium shows ventricular cavity expansion. Therefore, dilated cardiomyopathy endocardial fibroelastosis and differentiation are necessary.   Key words: Left ventricular non-compaction of the myocardium, autopsy, sudden death.