Sudden Cardiac Death and Right Ventricular DysplasiaMichalodimitrakis, E. N. M.D., J.D; Tsiftsis, D. D.-A. M.D; Tsatsakis, A. M. Ph.D; Stiakakis, I. M.DThe American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology: March 2001 - Volume 22 - Issue 1 - p 19-22 Articles Buy Abstract Author InformationAuthors Right ventricular cardiomyopathy dysplasia, now a well-established clinical and morphologic entity, was first reported in the medical literature in 1982. The cases of sudden death of two young men are here reported, with macroscopic and histologic findings. The anatomical explanation of such death was a fibrotic, lipomatous, or fibrolipomatous replacement and infiltration of the myocardium of the right ventricle. It is suggested that death due to right ventricular cardiomyopathy seems to be the result of electrical instability of right ventricular myocardium. There were no congenital malformations such as septal defect or valvular deformity. The subjects’ heart weights were normal. Signs of myocardial degeneration and necrosis with or without inflammatory infiltrates were not identified. From the University of Crete, Department of Forensic Sciences, Crete, Greece. Manuscript received March 3, 2000; accepted April 21, 2000. Address correspondence and reprint requests to E. N. Michalodimitrakis and Aristidis M. Tsatsakis, Department of Forensic Sciences, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion 714 09, P.O. Box 1393, Crete, Greece. © 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
