[Myocardial hypertrophy, arterial hypertension and sudden cardiac death].

721 cases of sudden coronary death (SCD) of men aged 30-59 were studied. It was found out that SCD happened in majority of cases in subjects with increased weight of heart: 44.2% of patients had heart weight of 500 g or more. A special histomorphometric study of kidneys (345 cases of SCD) revealed arterial hypertension (AH) in 41.2% of cases, which far exceeded AH incidence in the population of men of equal age. Nevertheless, not in all cases of SCD was myocardial hypertrophy caused by AH. In patients with no AH myocardial hypertrophy was usually caused by postinfarction cardiosclerosis. In certain cases of SCD without cardiosclerosis accompanied by manifest myocardial hypertrophy there were signs of dilatative or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The obtained results suggest that AH and increased weight of heart should be considered factors predisposing to SCD.