TY - JOUR
T1 - Guidelines for autopsy investigation of sudden cardiac death
AU - Basso, Cristina
AU - Burke, Margaret
AU - Fornes, Paul
AU - Gallagher, Patrick J.
AU - de Gouveia, Rosa Henriques
AU - Sheppard, Mary
AU - Thiene, Gaetano
AU - van der Wal, Allard
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Although sudden cardiac death is one of the most important mode of death in Western Countries, pathologists and public health physicians have not given this problem the attention it deserves. New methods of preventing potentially fatal arrhythmias have been developed, and the accurate diagnosis of the causes of sudden cardiac death is now of particular importance. Pathologists are responsible for determining the precise cause of sudden death but there is considerable variation in the way in which they approach this increasingly complex task. The Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology developed guidelines, which represent the minimum standard that is required in the routine autopsy practice for the adequate assessment of sudden cardiac death, including not only a protocol for heart examination and histological sampling, but also for toxicology and molecular investigation. Our recommendations apply to university medical centres, regional and district hospitals and all types of forensic medicine institutes. If a uniform method of investigation is adopted throughout the European Union, this will lead to improvements in standards of practice, allow meaningful comparisons between different communities and regions and, most importantly, permit future trends in the patterns of disease causing sudden death to be monitored
AB - Although sudden cardiac death is one of the most important mode of death in Western Countries, pathologists and public health physicians have not given this problem the attention it deserves. New methods of preventing potentially fatal arrhythmias have been developed, and the accurate diagnosis of the causes of sudden cardiac death is now of particular importance. Pathologists are responsible for determining the precise cause of sudden death but there is considerable variation in the way in which they approach this increasingly complex task. The Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology developed guidelines, which represent the minimum standard that is required in the routine autopsy practice for the adequate assessment of sudden cardiac death, including not only a protocol for heart examination and histological sampling, but also for toxicology and molecular investigation. Our recommendations apply to university medical centres, regional and district hospitals and all types of forensic medicine institutes. If a uniform method of investigation is adopted throughout the European Union, this will lead to improvements in standards of practice, allow meaningful comparisons between different communities and regions and, most importantly, permit future trends in the patterns of disease causing sudden death to be monitored
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-007-0505-5
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-007-0505-5
M3 - Review article
C2 - 17952460
SN - 0945-6317
VL - 452
SP - 11
EP - 18
JO - Virchows Archiv
JF - Virchows Archiv
IS - 1
ER -