Sudden cardiac death in the young: a 1-year post-mortem analysis in the Republic of Ireland.
OBJECTIVE
A retrospective post-mortem analysis was undertaken to determine the aetiology of sudden cardiac death (SCD) amongst individuals aged <or=35 years who died in Ireland in 2005.


RESULTS
The Central Statistics Office registered 122 deaths amongst those aged <or=35 that were possibly due to a cardiac cause based on the ICD-9 classification system. Fifty three cases were excluded because no post-mortem was performed (n = 29), reports were insufficient or unavailable (n = 10), because death was non-cardiac (n = 12) or occurred following a medical procedure (n = 2). Victims were predominantly male. The commonest finding at autopsy in those <14 years of age was a structurally normal heart in 20/27 subjects (74%) and in those aged 14-35 years was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or left ventricular hypertrophy in 17/42 subjects (40.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
The national incidence of SCD was 5.59 males and 0.78 females (3.18 overall) per 100,000 males and females aged 14-35, respectively, in 2005.
Morris
V B
VB
Department of Cardiology, Connolly Hospital, Dublin 15, Ireland.
Keelan
T
T
Leen
E
E
Keating
J
J
Magee
H
H
O'Neill
J O
JO
Galvin
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D001344:Autopsy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult