Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy with Massive Cardiomegaly in Indian Young Adult: Autopsy Case Report

Abstract

The sudden death of a bread winning adult in the family is devastating for any family. Even worse is when the adult dies in his young adulthood. Cardiovascular pathologies dominate the causes of sudden deaths in young adults more than the central nervous and respiratory systems. The enlarged heart or cardiomegaly at autopsy is the first indication of such cardiac pathology. Cardiomegaly may result from various pathologies such as hypertension, cardiomyopathies, rheumatic valvular diseases, etc. The resultant increase in the heart's weight due to the cardiac myocytes' adaptive response to meet the demand in the above conditions is known as cardiac hypertrophy. Although multiple reports on cardiomegaly were described from clinical settings based on imaging modalities like X-ray or echo cardiography, the data is lacking from forensic autopsies, especially from India. This is the first case report describing a young adult male of 30 years old who died due to massive cardiomegaly with a heart weight of 878 g from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.