title: Sudden death from ischaemic heart disease in a female patient with Sjögren syndrome: a case report.
abstract: Primary Sjögren syndrome (SjS) has a comparatively good prognosis except when it is complicated by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We performed an autopsy on a young female patient with primary SjS who had died suddenly during a meal, and we discuss the relationship between primary SjS and the cause of death. Eosinophilic change of the cardiomyocytes and severe arteriolosclerosis were observed within the myocardium. In the conduction system, lymphocyte infiltration was detected in the bundle of His, in addition to arteriosclerosis in the sinoatrial node and atrioventricular node arteries. The cause of death was diagnosed as ischaemic heart disease induced by arteriolosclerosis: its development can probably be attributed mostly to primary SjS. It should thus be kept in mind that primary SjS can occasionally result in the development of cardiovascular complications, such as ischaemic heart disease, as well as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine and Sciences, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174, Edobashi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan. inoueh@doc.medic.mie-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiromasa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Funauchi
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hanagama
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nata