[341] Setting up of a Pathology Laboratory To Investigate Sudden Cardiac Death. Results from First Year of CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology

K Hault, SV de Noronha, MN Sheppard. Royal Brompton Hospital, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Background: Most sudden cardiac deaths (SCD) are due to ischemic heart disease. In the young it is due to inherited cardiac disease such as cardiomyopathy. Since 1992, The Royal Brompton Hospital has been a referral centre for SCD in the United Kingdom. As a result of this work, a charity called Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) helped us set up a unit specifically to investigate the cardiac pathology of these sudden deaths in order to help families with obtaining a specific diagnosis of the cause of death and refer them for cardiac screening.
Design: Retrospective study of hearts in sudden death with detailed histological analysis.
Results: Our referral pattern yearly has increased to 250 hearts per year (see figure below).

Our turn around time for issuing a report is 2 weeks from the receiving of the heart. The diagnosis includes mainly normal heart indicating that channelopathies are very important in the cause of young sudden deaths. Idiopathic left ventricular cardiomyopathy as well as cardiomyopathies come next with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy predominating. Other causes are shown in chart below.


Conclusions: Families and the public are becoming aware of sudden cardiac death and wish to obtain a rapid and specific cause of the death. As a result of the establishment of the CRY Cardiac Pathology Unit, we are able to provide this rapid service and help families come to terms with a very traumatic event and assist with family screening. This is the first such unit in the world providing this service.
Category: Cardiovascular

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 1:00 PM

Poster Session IV # 46, Tuesday Afternoon