Hypertension and sudden cardiac death.
In order to investigate the role of hypertension in prehospital sudden cardiac death, the heart weights of 223 subjects selected from 2140 autopsy examinations were compared. The cases were selected in order to eliminate known distracting causes of cardiomegaly. The heart weights of 40 male victims of prehospital sudden cardiac death were significantly heavier than those of similar aged individuals dying of noncardiac causes. The latter control group included both subjects with severe coronary atherosclerosis and subjects with minimal coronary atherosclerosis. This study suggests that cardiomegaly in male victims of sudden cardiac death probably reflects a high prevalence of undetected hypertension.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000150:complications; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000150:complications; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D009929:Organ Size