Abstract

Cardiac lesions are responsible for approximately 60-70% of sudden deaths. Histopathological examination of heart on autopsy plays an essential role in determining the cause of death. Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the histopathological spectrum of uncommon lesions in the heart and blood vessels that arise from heart, which either proved to be a primary or contributory to the cause of deaths in clinical autopsies. Method: This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Pathology of a Tertiary care hospital over a period of one year from Jan 2020 to Dec 2020. During the study period, a total of 19 cases with uncommon lesions in heart and aorta were studied. The available clinical data had been collected from hospital records in these clinical autopsy cases. Cases of myocardial infarction were excluded. Results: Out of 19 cases, 11 cases were found in the age group of 15-40 years and 8 cases were of 40-50 years. Among 19 cases, 9 (47.4%) were inflammatory lesions, 4 (21.1%) cases of degenerative changes like fatty infiltration of heart, 2 cases of neoplastic etiology and one case each of aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva, mural thrombi in heart, myocardial hypertrophy and one case of aortic dissection. Conclusion: In the present study, inflammatory lesions (myocarditis and tuberculous myocarditis) was the commonest histopathologic finding followed by fatty infiltration of the heart. Other lesions like aortic dissection and aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva were the uncommon lesions seen in our study. Thus, histopathology in autopsy plays a vital role in the study of some of the rare cardiac lesions contributing to the knowledge of pathology

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