Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy as a Cause of Sudden Unexplained Death

Objective:Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a progressive cardiac muscle disease characterized as a progressive fibrofatty replacement of the right ventricle, severe ventricular arrhythmia, and sudden death. However, there is has been no report reports of ARVC as a cause of sudden death in Korea. Methods and Results:Postmortem studies were done to on 115 cases of sudden unexplained death at the department Department of legal Legal medicineMedicine, school School of medicineMedicine, Kyungpook national National university University in year 1999. We identified 7 cases (6%) of typical ARVC with no other identifiable cause of sudden death. The subjects included 5 males and 2 females, ranging in age from 19 to 41 years (mean 29.7 years). All were found dead at in bed (5 cases) or in the workshop (2 cases). Five cases were fibrofatty types and two cases were fatty types. Right ventricular aneurysm, inflammatory infiltrates and left ventricular involvement were found in 4, 2 and 1 cases, repectivelyrespectively. Two cases had a family history of sudden death before age 40. No one was None were suspected of having cardiovascular disease or ARVC before death. Conclusion:These findings indicate that ARVC in the Taegu-Kyungpook area may be more frequent than previously thought. ARVC may be a major cause of sudden unexplained death. (Korean Circulation J 2001;31(3):335-340)