Suddenly deceased young individuals autopsied at the Department of forensic medicine, Brno - analysis

Determination of the cause of death in sudden deaths of young people is a relatively common problem in routine medical practice. In cases of poor or negative morphologic findings at autopsy and poor or negative test results from laboratory, diagnostic quandary can occur. The grant project IGA MZ CR (Internal Grant Agency of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic) targets cases of the sudden deaths of young people under 40 years of age, where, even after an autopsy performed, and other laboratory examinations at the Department of Forensic Medicine are completed, it fails to detect the exact cause of death and death as a possible etiology is supposed malignant cardiac arrhythmias. The project aims to introduce a genetic analysis of these sudden deaths of individuals and determine the frequency of genetic pathologies related to malignant arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies, as well as clinical examination of direct relatives of the deceased by cardiologist, focusing on the identification of families at risk of sudden cardiac death. This examination and identification of causes of death will offer bereaved relatives prevention of sudden death and appropriate therapy. This article summarizes a retrospective analysis of sudden deaths of young people with a focus on monitoring diagnosed and unspecified cause of death and an analysis by age, gender and time of day. In the age range 1-40 years, the authors found less than 15 % of sudden death cases where it was not possible after performing autopsies or laboratory examinations to establish a clear cause of death. In such cases, it is considered category of hereditary channelopathies such as largely the congenital long-QT syndromes as possible etiology of sudden cardiac death. The authors consider useful to offer cardiological investigation to the relatives of the deceaseds, as well as genetic analysis of sudden deaths (molecular autopsy) and their relatives, which in the Czech Republic is not usually performed.

sudden and unexpected death - malignant cardiac arrhythmias - LQT syndrome - molecular autopsy.