[Morphometric studies of the vegetative nervous system in sudden cardiac death]

Histochemical investigation of the adrenergic cardiac nerves was undertaken for 101 victims of sudden cardiac death. In addition, the cervicothoracic ganglia of 12 persons between ages 40 and 60 who had died a sudden death were studied electron microscopically. Use of morphometric methods demonstrated that there was a significant reduction in the volume density of adrenergic nerve plexuses with focal depletion in the right and left ventricular walls and degenerative changes in the autonomic ganglia. In the sympathetic neurons, along with dilatation of the endoplasmic reticulum, damage to the mitochondrial inner membranes and the emergence of osmiophilic, dense bodies in the mitochondria were recorded. Morphometric analysis revealed a significant increase of the volume density of the mitochondria, which reflected predominantly the enlargement of these cell organelles. It is concluded that these degenerative changes in the vegetative nervous system have a possibly causal relevance to the occurrence of sudden cardiac death.