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Sudden Cardiac Death in Dakar: Epidemiological and Anatomo-Pathological Characteristics

2019; Scientific Research Publishing; Volume: 07; Issue: 03 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4236/fmar.2019.73009

2327-4107

El Hadji Oumar Ndoye, Amadou Mouctar Diallo, Ibou Thiam, Mouhamed Manibiliot Soumah, Sidy Ahmed Dia, Mor Ndiaye,

Cardiac Structural Anomalies and Repair

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) generally refers to sudden cardiovascular death of a person with or without pre-existing heart disease. This is a retrospective study conducted at the Department of Anatomy and Pathological Cytology at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital in Senegal. This study covers a period of 7 years from January 1st, 2000 to December 31st, 2006. During this 7-year period we collected 235 cases of sudden cardiovascular death out of a total of 3717 forensic autopsies, representing a frequency of 6.32%. Sudden cardiovascular deaths accounted for 75.3% of all 312 sudden deaths. 96.1% were black compared to 3.9% Caucasians. The average age of the patients was 46.86 years with extremes ranging from 17 to 86 years. The most affected age group was between 50 - 59 years old, representing 23.4% of the cases. The sex ratio was 4.3 in favour of men. Men aged 50 - 59 were the most affected, while women were more affected in the 20 - 29 age group. Cardiomyopathies constituted 54.9% with 90% of dilated cardiomyopathies of which 75% were male and 10% of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies more frequent also in men. Valvulopathies came in 3rd position with 3.4% of the cases and in 75% of the cases they were poly-valvulopathies. Atherosclerosis was incriminated in 2.5% of the cases and aortic localization was the most represented. Aortic dissection was implicated in 6 cases out of 235 or 2.5%. It was isolated in 4 cases (without other cardiac conditions), and in the other 2 cases it was accompanied by other cardiac lesions including hypertrophy, pericarditis and endocarditis. The other causes found were interauricular communication (n = 1) and pericarditis (n = 2). Sudden cardiovascular death is a major global public health problem. The lack of epidemiological data on sudden death in Africa motivated our work, which led us to note that 75.3% of all sudden deaths in adults were of cardiovascular origin.