Profile of sudden death in an adult population (1999-2008)

Sudden death is the sudden and unexpected death of an individual within 24 hours of symptom onset. The vast majority of these cases are found, at autopsy, to be due to underlying ischaemic cardiac disease. We retrospectively reviewed all adult post mortems performed at Beaumont Hospital over a decad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Irish medical journal 2010-06, Vol.103 (6), p.183-184
Main Authors: Downes, M R, Thorne, J, Tengku Khalid, T N, Hassan, H A, Leader, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Autopsy
Catchment Area (Health)
Cause of Death
Death, Sudden - epidemiology
Female
Humans
Ireland - epidemiology
Male
Middle Aged
Retrospective Studies
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Summary:Sudden death is the sudden and unexpected death of an individual within 24 hours of symptom onset. The vast majority of these cases are found, at autopsy, to be due to underlying ischaemic cardiac disease. We retrospectively reviewed all adult post mortems performed at Beaumont Hospital over a decade (1999-2008). Our aim was to identify all sudden death cases (natural and accidental) and subclassify them according to age profile and organ system involved. We identified 1230 sudden death cases in the review period with 775 (63%) deaths attributable to ischaemic heart disease. The rate of sudden death remained constant over the decade with 663 (54%) deaths occurring in the first five years. Our negative autopsy rate was 2.8% corresponding to 35 cases. This is the first Irish study to retrospectively review all adult sudden deaths within a defined catchment area and analyse them as outlined above.
ISSN:0332-3102