Sudden natural death

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Sudden natural death happens. It must be differentiated from other ways of dying (suicide, homicide, accidental).

By system

Respiratory[1]

Cerebral

  • SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy).

Cardiac

Older

  • Atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD); AKA coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • Hypertensive heart disease - a heart > ~400 g is considered good enough if nothing else is present.[2]

Younger

Notes:

  • The mechanism is usually arrhythmia; this is usually not provable at autopsy.

Detailed cardiac[1]

Post-mortem (molecular) testing for arrhythmias:[4]

  • CPVT.
  • Sodium channel disease.
  • Brugada syndrome.

By mechanism

Hemorrhagic[1]

  • Ruptured AAA.
  • Peptic ulcer.
  • Cerebral aneurysm.

See also

Reference

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 de la Grandmaison GL (January 2006). "Is there progress in the autopsy diagnosis of sudden unexpected death in adults?". Forensic Sci. Int. 156 (2-3): 138–44. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.12.024. PMID 16410164.
  2. MSP. 29 September 2010.
  3. URL: http://www.sads.org.uk/causes_of_sads.htm. Accessed on: 29 September 2010.
  4. MSP. 29 September 2010: