TY - JOUR
T1 - Cardiac hypertrophy at autopsy
AU - Basso, Cristina
AU - Michaud, Katarzyna
AU - d’Amati, Giulia
AU - Banner, Jytte
AU - Lucena, Joaquin
AU - Cunningham, Kristopher
AU - Leone, Ornella
AU - Vink, Aryan
AU - van der Wal, Allard C.
AU - on behalf of the Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology
AU - Sheppard, Mary N.
N1 - Funding Information: Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Padova within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Since cardiac hypertrophy may be considered a cause of death at autopsy, its assessment requires a uniform approach. Common terminology and methodology to measure the heart weight, size, and thickness as well as a systematic use of cut off values for normality by age, gender, and body weight and height are needed. For these reasons, recommendations have been written on behalf of the Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology. The diagnostic work up implies the search for pressure and volume overload conditions, compensatory hypertrophy, storage and infiltrative disorders, and cardiomyopathies. Although some gross morphologic features can point to a specific diagnosis, systematic histologic analysis, followed by possible immunostaining and transmission electron microscopy, is essential for a final diagnosis. If the autopsy is carried out in a general or forensic pathology service without expertise in cardiovascular pathology, the entire heart (or pictures) together with mapped histologic slides should be sent for a second opinion to a pathologist with such an expertise. Indication for postmortem genetic testing should be integrated into the multidisciplinary management of sudden cardiac death.
AB - Since cardiac hypertrophy may be considered a cause of death at autopsy, its assessment requires a uniform approach. Common terminology and methodology to measure the heart weight, size, and thickness as well as a systematic use of cut off values for normality by age, gender, and body weight and height are needed. For these reasons, recommendations have been written on behalf of the Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology. The diagnostic work up implies the search for pressure and volume overload conditions, compensatory hypertrophy, storage and infiltrative disorders, and cardiomyopathies. Although some gross morphologic features can point to a specific diagnosis, systematic histologic analysis, followed by possible immunostaining and transmission electron microscopy, is essential for a final diagnosis. If the autopsy is carried out in a general or forensic pathology service without expertise in cardiovascular pathology, the entire heart (or pictures) together with mapped histologic slides should be sent for a second opinion to a pathologist with such an expertise. Indication for postmortem genetic testing should be integrated into the multidisciplinary management of sudden cardiac death.
KW - Autopsy
KW - Cardiovascular diseases
KW - Diagnostic criteria
KW - Hypertrophy
KW - Quality in pathology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103150800&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03038-0
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03038-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 33740097
SN - 0945-6317
VL - 479
SP - 79
EP - 94
JO - Virchows Archiv
JF - Virchows Archiv
IS - 1
ER -