Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6(12), 3070-3081; doi:10.3390/ijerph6123070
Article

Sudden Unexpected Death in Alcohol Misuse—An Unrecognized Public Health Issue?

Alexa H. Templeton 1,* email, Karen L. T. Carter 1 email, Nick Sheron 1,2 email, Patrick J. Gallagher 3 email and Clare Verrill 3 email
1 Liver Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK 2 Clinical Hepatology, Division of Infection, Inflammation and Immunity, University of Southampton Medical School, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK 3 Department of Histopathology, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton, UK
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 29 October 2009 / Accepted: 29 November 2009 / Published: 4 December 2009
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alcohol and Public Health)
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Abstract: Sudden arrhythmic cardiac death can occur in chronic misusers of alcohol. The only findings at post mortem are fatty liver and a negative or low blood alcohol. This is an under-recognized entity. Coroner‘s post mortems in a typical UK city were studied. Seven out of 1,292 (0.5%) post mortems were deemed to have died of alcohol associated arrhythmic death. Applying this study to the UK as a whole, alcohol related arrhythmic death or as we have termed it SUDAM (Sudden Unexpected Death in Alcohol Misuse) probably accounts for around 1,000 deaths, many of which are misattributed to other causes
Keywords: alcohol; death; post mortem and sudden cardiac death

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MDPI and ACS Style

Templeton, A.H.; Carter, K.L.T.; Sheron, N.; Gallagher, P.J.; Verrill, C. Sudden Unexpected Death in Alcohol Misuse—An Unrecognized Public Health Issue? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6, 3070-3081.

AMA Style

Templeton AH, Carter KLT, Sheron N, Gallagher PJ, Verrill C. Sudden Unexpected Death in Alcohol Misuse—An Unrecognized Public Health Issue? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2009; 6(12):3070-3081.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Templeton, Alexa H.; Carter, Karen L. T.; Sheron, Nick; Gallagher, Patrick J.; Verrill, Clare. 2009. "Sudden Unexpected Death in Alcohol Misuse—An Unrecognized Public Health Issue?" Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 6, no. 12: 3070-3081.

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