Open Access: View PDF

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijfmp.0974.3383.12119.5

Abstract

 The study was conducted with an aim to find out the prevalence of cardiac pathology with its correlation to age, gender, occupation, risk factors and survival time in sudden cardiac deaths. 112 cases of sudden natural deaths due to cardiac and coronary pathology were reported, out of which 75% were male and 25% were female of which 45.5% were occupied with sedentary work. 42.0% cases were of lower middle class, followed by the upper middle class i.e. 29.5%. Peak incidence of sudden cardiac death was seen in the age group of 51-60 years. Maximum number of sudden deaths due to cardiac and coronary pathology were seen in obese individuals i.e. 55.4%. In these sudden deaths hypertension was seen in 29.5% cases, followed by Diabetes mellitus and Smoking in 25% and 9.8% cases respectively. Majority of sudden deaths i.e. 63.4%, occurred within 6 hours of onset of symptoms, 28% occurred within 6-12 hours and in 4% cases death occurred within 12-24 hours of onset of symptoms. Histroy of previous myocardial infarction was present in 31.2% cases. Sudden deaths due to cardiac and coronary pathology showed that 90 % of cases died due to coronary artery disease out of which 44.64% had acute coronary insufficiency while 33.9 % succumbed due to acute coronary insufficiency with Old Myocardial Infarction and 11.6 % due to Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Keywords: Sudden Cardiac Death; Coronary Pathology; Acute Myocardial Infarction; Hypertension.

Corresponding Author : Madhusudan R. Petkar, Associate Professor, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune, Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, Maharashtra 411018, India.