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Sudden unexplained death in alcohol misuse (SUDAM) patients have different characteristics to those who died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS).

Sorkin, T; Sheppard, MN (2017) Sudden unexplained death in alcohol misuse (SUDAM) patients have different characteristics to those who died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS). Forensic Sci Med Pathol, 13 (3). pp. 278-283. ISSN 1556-2891 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-017-9877-2
SGUL Authors: Sheppard, Mary Noelle

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Abstract

There is growing awareness of sudden unexplained death in alcohol misuse (SUDAM) in which there is no obvious cause of death, no evidence of acute alcohol toxicity or alcoholic ketoacidosis, and the heart is morphologically normal. This study describes the characteristics of a cohort with SUDAM from a tertiary cardiovascular referral center and compares the findings with those of individuals who died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS). Cases in this retrospective cross-sectional study were identified from a database of referrals to our center spanning approximately 40 years. Cases with recorded heavy use of alcohol and non-alcohol users were selected, then limited to those with SUDAM or SADS aged 16 to 64 years. 62 cases of SUDAM and 41 cases of SADS were identified. The SUDAM group were older than the SADS group; mean age 35.8 years and 27.7 years respectively (P=0.0002). There was also a higher incidence of significant psychiatric illness in SUDAM (19.7%) than SADS (2.4%) cases. Post mortem liver examination was more likely to reveal heavy livers in SUDAM than SADS (2196.1g and 1572.4g respectively; P=0.0033) and more fatty liver change (24.2% and 2.4%). SUDAM tends to occur in individuals who are older and have heavier livers than those with SADS. Psychiatric illness is also more common. SADS, unlike SUDAM, is often associated with heritable channelopathies that may affect surviving family members. Therefore, differentiating between SUDAM and SADS identifies families likely to benefit from screening for these mutations, thus preventing further sudden arrhythmic deaths.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords: Alcohol, Cardiac, SADS, SUDAM, Sudden death, Legal & Forensic Medicine, 1103 Clinical Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute (MCS)
Academic Structure > Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute (MCS) > Cardiac (INCCCA)
Journal or Publication Title: Forensic Sci Med Pathol
ISSN: 1556-2891
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
September 2017Published
1 July 2017Published Online
1 March 2017Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
UNSPECIFIEDCardiac Risk in the YoungUNSPECIFIED
PubMed ID: 28668989
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/108980
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-017-9877-2

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