Sudden cardiac death in the young: a 1-year post-mortem analysis in the Republic of Ireland.

AIMS: 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.

METHODS AND

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%).

CONCLUSION

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.