Abstract 18302: Echocardiography versus Autopsy in the San Francisco POstmortem Systematic InvesTigation of Sudden Cardiac Death (POST SCD) Study

Introduction: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Prior studies have inferred causes of SCD from EMS records or death certificates rather than gold-standard autopsies. Moreover, the agreement between segmental and global TTE and autopsy-defined LVH parameters is unclear. We sought to compare TTE LVH with autopsy-defined LVH in autopsy-proven sudden arrhythmic death (SAD) vs. non-SAD in a comprehensive postmortem study of SCD in San Francisco (SF) County. Methods: From 2/2011 to 3/2014, all incident World Health Organization-defined SCDs ages 18-90 were identified for autopsy via active surveillance of all out of hospital deaths in the SF POstmortem Systematic InvesTigation of Sudden Cardiac Death (POST SCD) Study. Autopsy-defined SADs had no extra-cardiac cause of death or acute HF. For subjects with available pre-mortem TTE, we assessed LV ejection fraction (EF), interventricular septal and posterior w...