Abstract
Background and Objectives: Cardiac autopsy is the main diagnostic tool to study various histomorphological changes in normal and diseased heart. Therefore, an autopsy study of heart was planned to observe various histomorphological cardiac changes, and to determine the incidence of heart disease in general population, in and around Nagpur city, to assess the role of histopathology as diagnostic tool to diagnose cardiac death and also to correlate the gross and microscopic findings in cardiac pathology.
Method: Total 200 hearts were systematically examined during two years of study period. Gross and microscopic findings on H and E stained sections were studied. The observations were divided into the following categories- 1) normal versus abnormal heart, 2) Congenital versus acquired anomalies, 3) Major versus minor cardiac findings.
Results: The incidence of heart disease in and around Nagpur city was found to be 28%. Cardiac pathology was 4 times more common in males than females. A major finding in this study was high frequency of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease (21.50%). The highest incidence of myocardial infarction was found in 31-60 years to the tune of 73%. In other cause of death such as drawing, hanging, poisoning, accident etc., there was no obvious cardiac pathology but in some cases incidental findings such as tunneled coronary artery, conal coronary artery, patent foramen ovale, high-tech off coronary ostium etc. were observed.
Conclusion: Myocardial infarction due to atherosclerosis is the commonest finding in death cases subjected to autopsy.
Keywords: Autopsy, Histomorphology, Histopathology, Cardiac pathology, Atherosclerosis, Myocardial infarction.
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Corresponding Author
Dr Jayawant Mahadani
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i8.192
