Sudden death caused by cardiac rupture due to severe fatty infiltration in the right

Abstract

The autor presents an extremely rarelease of sudden death caused by rupture cardiac due to severe fatty infiltration in the right atrial myocardium. The patient, a 49-year-old man, he was found dead under a brigdge, na he had no evidences of violence or chest trauma. The autopsy showed a pericardial tamponade caused by a cardiac rupture of right atrial myocardium. The histopathologic study of lesion demonstrate a severe fatty infiltration of myocardium, whithout signals of adjacent cardiac ischemia or coronary disease. Although fatty deposits in the heart have been recognised for some time, it is surprising to find that there have been extremely few publications on this subject during the last ten years. Its possible that a certain number of cases of obesity or cardiac sudden death, are really cases of lipomatosis of the heart wich have not been recognised as such. Fatty infiltration of the myocardium, if severe, can be a cause of seious cardiac dysfunction or, ocasionally, sudden death.