[343] Obesity and Sudden Cardiac Death. Does a Specific Obesity Cardiomyopathy Exist? A Study of Predominantly Non-Ischaemic Causes of Sudden Death

AM Plonczak, SV de Noronha, MN Sheppard. Royal Brompton Hospital, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Background: Obesity is a major health concern in the modern world and it is associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death.
Design: We investigated the cardiac pathology in 57 cases with history of sudden death and with BMI above 30.
Results: Sex and age (26F: 31M, average age =38) was equally distributed in the cohort. Morphologically normal hearts predominated (46%) followed by cardiomyopathies (37%) and coronary artery disease (11%). In those with normal hearts younger patients predominated (70%). In the cardiomyopathy group, idiopathic left ventricle hypertrophy with or without fibrosis (LVH) was the most common diagnosis (71%), followed by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) (14%) . There was 1 case of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), 1 of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and 1 of idiopathic fibrosis (IF). Fatty infiltration of the right ventricle was present in 23 cases (40%), featuring in 52% of normal hearts, 50% of hearts with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 29% of hearts with cardiomyopathy.
Conclusions: Normal heart and idiopathic LVH with or without fibrosis are the main non-coronary causes of sudden death in obese young subjects in this study. Fatty infiltration of the right ventricle is also prominent in obesity. The incidence of possible channelopathies and obesity hypertrophy needs further investigation in this group with family screening. Further studies will compare with sudden cardiac death in non obese subjects.
Category: Cardiovascular

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 1:00 PM

Poster Session IV # 47, Tuesday Afternoon