Histopathological diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: A review of three autopsy cases.

INTRODUCTION: Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy is an underdiagnosed myocardial disease which commonly presents with sudden cardiac death in young people. It is considered as a challenge for forensic pathologist due to its pathological changes. Here, we presented three cases of postmortem diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy with involvement of other subtypes.

CASE REPORT: Here, we report autopsy cases of sudden cardiac death as the first clinical manifestation observed in three patients with different ages and with no medical history, nor previous family history of sudden death or heart diseases. The postmortem investigations were performed and the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy with three expression forms was later confirmed by histopathological examination, this latter showed fibroadipose tissue infiltrations of the myocardium. The diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy was discussed with review through the literature.

CONCLUSION: We presented special characteristic and histopathology features of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy cases, discovered in our usual forensic practice. This may be helpful for forensic pathologists to make a reliable diagnosis even in the absence of clinical history.