Assessing the role of cardiovascular diseases in drowning: A case-control study

Drowning is a serious public health problem that can lead to morbidity or mortality. The study aims to describe the postmortem cardiovascular findings and investigate the impact of cardiovascular diseases on the mortality associated with drowning, employing a control group for comparison. The null hypothesis of our investigation suggested that there would be no statistically significant disparity in cardiovascular findings between cases of drowning and deaths resulting from other non-toxicological and non-pathological incidents. A study group (n = 109) from the deaths due to drowning were composed and a comparable control group (n = 218) by selecting two cases for each case in the study group with matching age and gender, with non-toxicological and non-pathological causes of death were created, in order to reduce potential confounding. The demographic and physical properties, and the cardiovascular autopsy findings were compared between the groups. The study revealed a male predominance (73.4 %), with a median age of 55 (study) and 56 (control). Cardiovascular alterations (hypertrophy, scarring, fibrosis, stenosis) exhibited no significant differences between groups. Cardiac hypertrophy correlated positively with age. Higher BMI were detected in individuals over 40 years old in the study group compared to control group. No significant differences were detected between the groups in terms of cardiovascular findings. However, in the younger population (<40 years old), although not statistically significant, the study group showed higher percentages compared to the control group for both perivascular-interstitial fibrosis and ventricular hypertrophy.