Sudden cardiac death a case with two distinct and unrelated causes

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are the most frequent causes of Sudden Death in the adult. The authors report the case of a 44-year-old man who died sudden and unexpectedly when driving from Lisbon to Coimbra. A forensic postmortem examination revealed not only hypertensive and ischemic cardiopathy but also hypersensitivity non-illicit druginduced myocarditis, with morphological evidence of both mechanical and arrhythmic mechanisms leading to death. It highlights the relevance of histological examination in the investigation of sudden death and emphasizes the etiologic complexity underlying cardiac sudden, unexpected deaths.