Key result
Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease was the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, accounting for 65.6% of 128 autopsy cases.
Why the study?
Sudden cardiac death is a major public health problem accounting for 15% to 20% of global deaths, warranting analysis of its etiological distribution and epidemiological data.
Observational (n=128)
No
Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, often accompanied by cardiomegaly and high BMI, remains the predominant cause of sudden cardiac death, underscoring the need for early preventive screening.
CAD predominance in SCD autopsies supports targeted risk assessment; leaves open whether screening alters outcomes in living populations.
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is an important public health problem that accounts for approximately 15% to 20% of global deaths. Our retrospective study aimed to analyze etiological distribution and epidemiological data of 128 cases with SCD as death cause based on autopsies between 2010 and 2019. The mean age of SCD cases was 57.09, with the highest incidence in older than 60 years (43.8%). Male/female ratio was 4.5:1, peaking with 9.2:1 in the 41- to 60-year age group. Deaths occurred mostly at home (41.4%). Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAD) was main SCD cause (65.6%) with cardiac tamponade (10.9%), unexplained SCD (8.6%), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (7.8%) after it. A total of 71.2% of CAD cases had coronary artery stenosis of greater than 75% and 92.9% had atherosclerotic degeneration in the left anterior descending artery. Based on the body mass index-based normal heart weights table, 91.7% of CAD cases had cardiomegaly. This study showed CAD, cardiomegaly, and high body mass index concurrence as a very important SCD risk. Because SCD incidence increases in older than 40 years, determining risk groups through regular medical examinations and inspections, older than 30 years would provide implementation of preventive measures. Some cardiac diseases causing sudden death are undetectable despite detailed autopsy and histopathological examinations. Including postmortem cardiogenetic analysis among routine techniques in sudden deaths would lower sudden unexplained death diagnosis rates.
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Yıldız et al. (2020) conducted an observational in Sudden Cardiac Death (n=128). Sudden cardiac death was evaluated on Etiological distribution of sudden cardiac death (specifically coronary atherosclerotic heart disease). Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease was the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, accounting for 65.6% of 128 autopsy cases.
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