Anomalous origin of coronary arteries and risk of sudden death: a study based on an autopsy population of congenital heart disease.

Coronary arteries anomalies may be part of complex congenital malformations of the heart or be an isolated defect. In our anatomic collection of congenital heart disease, an isolated anomalous origin of coronary arteries was observed in 27 of 1,200 specimens (2.2%): left coronary artery from pulmonary trunk in five, origin from the wrong aortic sinus in 12 (both right and left coronary artery from the right sinus in four and from the left sinus in seven, left coronary artery from the posterior sinus in one), left circumflex branch from right aortic sinus or from very proximal right coronary artery in three, high takeoff of right coronary artery in three, stenosis of the coronary ostia attributable to valvelike ridge in four.

Anomalous origin of the left circumflex coronary artery from the right aortic sinus of valsalva and sudden death.

Anomalous origin of the left circumflex coronary artery from the right aortic sinus is generally considered a benign condition. We report a 53-year-old man with clinical and pathologic evidence of myocardial infarction and sudden death in the setting of this anomaly, with no evidence of obstructive coronary atherosclerosis.

Non-traumatic rupture of the superior mesenteric vein with hemoretroperitoneum.

A case of rupture of the superior mesenteric vein with hemoretroperitoneum is described. The autopsy revealed the presence of an acute pancreatitis and thrombosis of the superior mesenteric artery. From the histological findings it appeared that the acute pancreatitis had damaged the venous wall from the outside and that the portal system overload, caused by the superior mesenteric artery thrombosis and the anomalous termination of the inferior mesenteric vein, acted from the inside of the vein causing its rupture.