Autopsy Profile of Sudden Cardiac Deaths Reported in Mumbai Region of Maharashtra

The study was conducted with an aim to find out the prevalence of cardiac pathology withits correlationtoage, gender, occupation, risk factors and survival time in sudden cardiac deaths. 112 cases of suddennatural deathsdueto cardiac and coronary pathology were reported, out of which 75% were male and 25%were femaleof which45.5%were occupied with sedentary work. 42.0% cases were of lower middle class, followedbythe upper middleclassi.e. 29.5%. Peak incidence of sudden cardiac death was seen in the age group of 51-60 years. Maximumnumberofsudden deaths due to cardiac and coronary pathology were seen in obese individuals i.e. 55.4%. Inthesesuddendeaths hypertension was seen in 29.5% cases, followed by Diabetes mellitus and Smokingin25%and9.8%casesrespectively. Majority of sudden deaths i.e. 63.4%, occurred within 6 hours of onset of symptoms, 28%occurredwithin 6-12 hours and in 4% cases death occurred within 12-24 hours of onset of symptoms. Histroyof previousmyocardial infarction was present in 31.2% cases. Sudden deaths due to cardiac and coronarypathologyshowedthat 90 % of cases died due to coronary artery disease out of which 44.64%had acute coronaryinsufficiencywhile33.9 % succumbed due to acute coronary insufficiency with Old Myocardial Infarctionand11.6%duetoAcuteMyocardial Infarction.