[An investigation of sudden cardiac death in apparently healthy young men by annual health examination].
We have clinically compared the health records of 58 apparently healthy men who succumbed to sudden cardiac death (SCD) against the same number of control subjects (CS) with similar physical and social backgrounds. SCD, for our purpose, was defined as a death that occurred from a non-traumatic cause within one hour after the SCD onset. The clinical examination of our SCD cases consisted of evaluating the findings derived from their health records covering a span of 13 years such as their ECGs, the blood pressure data, chest x-rays, serum chemical analysis, and their obesity indexes. Heart weights were estimated from their ECGs by the quantification of a multivariate analysis. Of the total SCD cases studied, eleven hearts also were examined pathologically. With respect to the physical conditions of the SCD cases and the CS cases, the systolic blood pressure in the SCD cases was found to be higher, whereas no significant variances in the diastolic values were found, and both the systolic and diastolic values were within normal ranges in the two groups. A greater number of hearts weighing more than 420 g were found in the SCD group. Similarly the frequency of premature contraction and the serum cholesterol level was higher. No further appreciable differences, however, were found. Myocardial cell hypertrophy, degeneration, and interstitial edema were observed in all eleven hearts. Our data have revealed that the greater the heart weight, the greater the risk of succumbing to SCD. The risk becomes more evident if the systolic and cholesterol levels are also found to be high.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Kurita
A
A
Uehata
A
A
Nishioka
T
T
Takase
B
B
Maruyama
T
T
Nakamura
H
H
Nakagawa
A
A
Shiga
M
M
Asano
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000401:mortality; D002648:Child; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D010808:Physical Examination; D011379:Prognosis