Sudden Death in Doberman Pinschers

In a postmortem study of 11 Doberman Pinschers that had died suddenly, an identical cardiac lesion was found in 10. This was a nearly complete focal degeneration of the His bundle, which was associated with cartilage and bone formation in the adjacent central fibrous body. The cause of these lesions is considered to be luminal narrowing of the local small coronary arteries, which may be a heritable fault. It is postulated that sudden unexpected death in these dogs may be due to a form of Adams-Stokes attack. Pertinence of these observations to human cardiac disease is discussed.