Diagnosis of sudden coronary death in the autopsy room: guidelines for forensic pathologists

The pathological techniques employed in examining cases of sudden coronary death can vary widely. Visual assessment of coronary narrowing can lead to over-estimation of the true stenosis and may result in overdiagnosis of sudden coronary death. On the other hand, inappropriate examination of the whole epicardial coronary tree while searching for acute coronary lesions may lead to underdiagnosis. The approach recommended in this paper should minimize the possibility of such errors in the diagnosis of sudden coronary death.