Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Sudden Death After Exercise

Investigators from the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, conducted a retrospective study to determine the incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and evaluate the role of exercise in HCM-SCD. For the study, they identified cases of HCM-SCD in Ontario, Canada, occurring between 2005 and 2011 among individuals 10–45 years old, as confirmed by means of autopsy at the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario (OCCO). OCCO maintains a centralized database and includes information about all sudden deaths attended by the coroner in the province. A diagnosis of HCM as the cause of SCD was considered definite when the autopsy findings included marked cardiomyocyte hypertrophy with pleomorphic to bizarre …