[Status of the adrenal medulla in various types of sudden cardiac death].

The status of adrenal medulla was examined in 65 cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD) by using a quantitative histofluorescence technique and Wood's method. The autopsy material included a control group (11 accidental victims). In terms of postmortem changes in the myocardium, 6 groups of SCD cases were singled out. Medullary catecholamines showed greater luminescence intensity in the groups where SCD had been accompanied with hypertensive disease, scarring myocardial infarction and alcoholic cardiomyopathy than in the control group. On the contrary, lower luminescence intensity of catecholamines in chromaffin tissue of the adrenal gland was observed in the groups where SCD had been associated with acute myocardial infarction and small focal cardiosclerosis. The rate of catecholamine luminescence intensity in the group where SCD had occurred with postinfarction cardiosclerosis did not differ from that seen in controls. The findings from the quantitative histofluorescence analysis of adrenal medulla in SCD were in accord with the results obtained from a light optic study of adrenal glands in the same cases by employing Wood's method.