Postmortem study of histopathological lesions of heart in sudden natural deaths brought to JNIMS, Imphal

AUTHOR(s) : Moirangthem BK, Angam G, Devi Reena, Gangmei Agatha, Laishram Suraj, Kamei Hellena
DOI No. : 10.31741/ijhrmlp.v6.i1.2020.8

ABSTRACT :
Introduction: To study the histopathological lesions of heart in autopsy specimens, that plays a major role as cause of death in sudden natural deaths. Materials and methods: A retrospective study was carried out over a period of 5 years i.e from January 2014 to December 2018 in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, JNIMS, Imphal. Total 1010 medicolegal autopsies were conducted during this period, out of which sudden natural death was seen in 51 cases. Among the 51 cases, 25 were of deaths due to cardiac cause. Results: This study included 25 cases of sudden cardiac deaths. Maximum number of cases was in the age group of 40-50 years. All the cases were males. Grossly, the average weight of heart was between 300-400 grams. Out of 25 cases, the most common cause of death is found to be Coronary insufficiency which constitute 64%, followed by Myocardial infarction (24%), myocarditis (8%) and cardiomyopathy (4%). Conclusion: Coronary atherosclerosis as the commonest pathological lesion was found and is the leading cause of death.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; morphology; myocardial infarction; coronaries.

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