%0 Journal Article
%T Sudden Cardiac Death in Dakar: Epidemiological and Anatomo-Pathological Characteristics
%A El Hadji Oumar Ndoye
%A Amadou Mouctar Diallo
%A Ibou Thiam
%A Mouhamed Manibiliot Soumah
%A Sidy Ahmed Dia
%A Mor Ndiaye
%J Forensic Medicine and Anatomy Research
%P 51-61
%@ 2327-4107
%D 2019
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/fmar.2019.73009
%X 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 1<sup>st</sup>, 2000 to December 31<sup>st</sup>, 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 3<sup>rd</sup> 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.
%K Sudden Cardiac Death
%K Forensic Medicine
%K Autopsy
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=94280