Postmortem analyses of myocardial microRNA expression in sepsis.

Background: Sepsis can lead to myocardial depression, playing a significant role in sepsis pathophysiology, clinical care, and outcome. To gain more insight into the pathophysiology of the myocardial response in sepsis, we investigated the expression of microRNA in myocardial autopsy specimens in critically ill deceased with sepsis and non-septic controls.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective observational study, we obtained myocardial tissue samples collected during autopsy from adult patients deceased with sepsis (n = 15) for routine histological examination.

is overexpressed in human cardiac tissue in hypothermia deaths; associations between the transcript and stress hormone levels in cardiac deaths.

Background: Amphiregulin (AREG) is a growth factor linked to cardioprotection and heart pathology during myocardial stress. Our aim was to investigate cardiac expression, its potential as a postmortem hypothermia marker and its possible stress hormone dependency in different types of deaths.

Materials And Methods: Heart RNA was isolated from hypothermic, cardiac and non-cardiac deaths.

Genetic variants associated with cardiac hypertrophy-related sudden cardiac death and cardiovascular outcomes in a Finnish population.

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a common cause of non-ischaemic sudden cardiac death (SCD). Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) without cardiomyopathy-related myocardial disarray is a common autopsy finding and is often associated with prior hypertension in SCD subjects. Our aim was to investigate novel rare gene variants among SCD subjects with presumably hypertension-related LVH and myocardial fibrosis at autopsy.