Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Introduction: Incidence of sudden cardiac death has been gradually increasing all over the world. Sometimes sudden deaths occur in older individual and generally under circumstances which arouse no suspicion. But such deaths in younger individuals are likely to draw out suspicion. Therefore, there is a need to develop complementary strategies for management of sudden cardiac death. Hence the present study aimed to analyze causes of sudden death to find out measures to prevent such unexpected deaths. Material and Methods: The present study was carried out over 48 Viscera cases of sudden Natural cardiac death which were subjected to Histopathology after postmortem examination. Cases with alleged History of death within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms in an individual who was not known to be suffering from any disease, injury or poisoning, considered as criteria for selection of cases and cases with alleged Non cardiac but sudden natural death e.g. stroke were excluded from study. Hearts were studied in detail both grossly and microscopically. Findings were correlated with the findings of Autopsy report and History of the case as per Police papers submitted along with the viscera. The information was analyzed to find out the etiology of sudden death in all the cases. Results: The present study found that among 48 cases, maximum cases (15) (31.25%) were in the age group 50-59, followed by 14 (29.16%) in 40-49 age group. Among 48 cases, 33 (68.75%) patients were found pathologically diagnosed as atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD), 3 (6.25%) as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 2 (4.16%) as hypertensive heart disease, 1 (2.08%) as rheumatic heart disease, 3 (6.25%) as acute cardiac temponade and 6 (12.5%) with no cardiac lesion. Conclusion: The present study revealed that atherosclerotic coronary artery disease as the major cause of sudden cardiac death. Comprehensive preventative approaches, concentrating on various risk factors in populations with low-risk and known high-risk are required to decrease the burden of sudden cardiac death. Keywords: Cause of Death; Autopsy Viscera; Coronary Artery Disease; Sudden Natural Death.