TY - JOUR
T1 - Ventricular weight increases proportionally with total heart weight in postmortem population
AU - Loper, Nicole
AU - Garland, Jack
AU - Ondruschka, Benjamin
AU - Lamberts, Regis R.
AU - Stables, Simon
AU - Tse, Rexson
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Heart weight is routinely measured at postmortem examination and is critical to determine whether the heart is enlarged (ie, cardiomegaly). Cardiomegaly has the potential to cause sudden death by being electrically unstable, resulting in fatal arrhythmias. The majority of fatal cardiac arrhythmias is ventricular in origin and is assumed that ventricular size is disproportionately larger in cardiomegaly. This prospective study compared ventricular weight (VW) and total heart weight (THW) in 40 consecutive cases. The results, unexpectedly, showed that VW increases proportionally and linearly with THW in normal and enlarged hearts (THW, >500 g) and did not increase disproportionally with increased THW. The ratio of VW/THW did not have any significant correlation or difference with sex, height, weight, and cardiac causes of death but did have a negative correlation with age. Further studies are indicated to document the morphological changes when the heart enlarges, which may aid in understanding the pathophysiology of sudden death from cardiomegaly.
AB - Heart weight is routinely measured at postmortem examination and is critical to determine whether the heart is enlarged (ie, cardiomegaly). Cardiomegaly has the potential to cause sudden death by being electrically unstable, resulting in fatal arrhythmias. The majority of fatal cardiac arrhythmias is ventricular in origin and is assumed that ventricular size is disproportionately larger in cardiomegaly. This prospective study compared ventricular weight (VW) and total heart weight (THW) in 40 consecutive cases. The results, unexpectedly, showed that VW increases proportionally and linearly with THW in normal and enlarged hearts (THW, >500 g) and did not increase disproportionally with increased THW. The ratio of VW/THW did not have any significant correlation or difference with sex, height, weight, and cardiac causes of death but did have a negative correlation with age. Further studies are indicated to document the morphological changes when the heart enlarges, which may aid in understanding the pathophysiology of sudden death from cardiomegaly.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:66342
U2 - 10.1097/PAF.0000000000000568
DO - 10.1097/PAF.0000000000000568
M3 - Article
SN - 0195-7910
VL - 41
SP - 259
EP - 262
JO - American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
JF - American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
IS - 4
ER -