1
|
Alqarawi W, Alsaeed A, Alghamdi M, Hersi A, Kashour T, Aljerian K. Medical Autopsy for Sudden Unexplained Death in Saudi Arabia: A Call to Action. J Saudi Heart Assoc 2022; 34:142-147. [PMID: 36127933 PMCID: PMC9458319 DOI: 10.37616/2212-5043.1310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Sudden unexplained death (SUD) is a sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death in an individual older than 1 year. It is one of the most devastating and tragic events to families and the community at large, particularly when it happens at a young age. Finding the cause of SUD is extremely important in order to prevent its recurrence in the family, and to help understand the epidemiology of SUD in the community. It has been well-established that the most effective way of finding the cause of SUD is by performing a medical autopsy. In many countries, medical autopsy is mandated in SUD cases. In others, however, medical autopsy is rarely performed for the purpose of identifying the cause of SUD, which is the case in Saudi Arabia. In this review, we discussed the importance of finding the cause of death in SUD cases, the role of different types of medical autopsies, and the state of medical autopsy in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, we proposed a clinical pathway to incorporate medical autopsy in the care of SUD cases, and to connect family members to the health care system in order to perform cascade screening.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wael Alqarawi
- Department of Cardiac Sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Abdulelah Alsaeed
- Department of Cardiac Sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Malak Alghamdi
- Medical Genetics Division, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed Hersi
- Department of Cardiac Sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Tarek Kashour
- Department of Cardiac Sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Khaldoon Aljerian
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Martínez-Valdez L, Richardson V, Bautista-Márquez A, Hernández-Ávila M. Epidemiology of sudden infant death syndrome in Mexico, 2005-2020. Front Pediatr 2022; 10:1001089. [PMID: 36568434 PMCID: PMC9773828 DOI: 10.3389/fped.2022.1001089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) constitutes one of the main causes of mortality in children under one year of age in developed countries; it's frequency to varies geographically. In Mexico the real incidence of SIDS is not known. METHODS National databases of deaths in children under one year of age, from 2005 to 2020, were analyzed, due to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) [SIDS (R95), accidental suffocation in a sleeping environment (W75), and other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality (R99), according to the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD 10)]. Mortality rates per year of occurrence due to SUID and their subcategories were calculated. Simple frequencies of SIDS were obtained per year and month of occurrence, state of residence, age, place of death, and access to social security services. RESULTS In the study period 473,545 infant deaths occurred; 7,714 (1.62%) deaths were due to SUID; of these, 6,489 (84%) were due to SIDS, which is among the 10 leading causes of infant death in Mexico. The average mortality rate for SUID was 22.4/100,000 live births, for SIDS was 18.8/100,000 live births. Mortality rates within the states were variable, ranging from 2.4/100,000 to 105.1/100,000 live births. In 81% of SIDS records there was no autopsy; 38% of deaths due to SIDS occurred in infants under one month of age, up to 87% of deaths occurred in families without social security services or it was unknown, and 76.2% of deaths occurred at home. Deaths were more frequent during the last months of autumn and during winter. CONCLUSION In Mexico there is an underregistry of SIDS as cause of death, along with other SUID categories. Health workers need to be trained to improve diagnosis and data registration, including the practice of autopsies; additionally, it is necessary to implement a public health campaign.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Libny Martínez-Valdez
- Dirección de Prestaciones Económicas y Sociales, El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Vesta Richardson
- Dirección de Prestaciones Económicas y Sociales, El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Aurora Bautista-Márquez
- Dirección de Prestaciones Económicas y Sociales, El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Mauricio Hernández-Ávila
- Dirección de Prestaciones Económicas y Sociales, El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Molecular Autopsy of Sudden Cardiac Death in the Genomics Era. Diagnostics (Basel) 2021; 11:diagnostics11081378. [PMID: 34441312 PMCID: PMC8394514 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics11081378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Revised: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Molecular autopsy is the process of investigating sudden death through genetic analysis. It is particularly useful in cases where traditional autopsy is negative or only shows non-diagnostic features, i.e., in sudden unexplained deaths (SUDs), which are often due to an underlying inherited arrhythmogenic cardiac disease. The final goal of molecular autopsy in SUD cases is to aid medico-legal inquiries and to guide cascade genetic screening of the victim’s relatives. Early attempts of molecular autopsy relied on Sanger sequencing, which, despite being accurate and easy to use, has a low throughput and can only be employed to analyse a small panel of genes. Conversely, the recent adoption of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has allowed exome/genome wide examination, providing an increase in detection of pathogenic variants and the discovery of newer genotype-phenotype associations. NGS has nonetheless brought new challenges to molecular autopsy, especially regarding the clinical interpretation of the large number of variants of unknown significance detected in each individual.
Collapse
|
4
|
Schön U, Holzer A, Laner A, Kleinle S, Scharf F, Benet-Pagès A, Peschel O, Holinski-Feder E, Diebold I. HPO-driven virtual gene panel: a new efficient approach in molecular autopsy of sudden unexplained death. BMC Med Genomics 2021; 14:94. [PMID: 33789662 PMCID: PMC8011092 DOI: 10.1186/s12920-021-00946-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Molecular autopsy represents an efficient tool to save the diagnosis in up to one-third of sudden unexplained death (SUD). A defined gene panel is usually used for the examination. Alternatively, it is possible to carry out a comprehensive genetic assessment (whole exome sequencing, WES), which also identifies rare, previously unknown variants. The disadvantage is that a dramatic number of variants must be assessed to identify the causal variant. To improve the evaluation of WES, the human phenotype ontology (HPO) annotation is used internationally for deep phenotyping in the field of rare disease. However, a HPO-based evaluation of WES in SUD has not been described before. Methods We performed WES in tissue samples from 16 people after SUD. Instead of a fixed gene panel, we defined a set of HPO terms and thus created a flexible “virtual gene panel”, with the advantage, that recently identified genes are automatically associated by HPO terms in the HPO database. Results We obtained a mean value of 68,947 variants per sample. Stringent filtering ended up in a mean value of 276 variants per sample. Using the HPO-driven virtual gene panel we developed an algorithm that prioritized 1.4% of the variants. Variant interpretation resulted in eleven potentially causative variants in 16 individuals. Conclusion Our data introduce an effective diagnostic procedure in molecular autopsy of SUD with a non-specific clinical phenotype.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ulrike Schön
- MGZ - Medical Genetics Center Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Anna Holzer
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Andreas Laner
- MGZ - Medical Genetics Center Munich, Munich, Germany
| | | | | | | | - Oliver Peschel
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | | | - Isabel Diebold
- MGZ - Medical Genetics Center Munich, Munich, Germany. .,Department of Pediatrics, Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Munich, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Schulze-Bahr E, Dettmeyer RB, Klingel K, Kauferstein S, Wolf C, Baba HA, Bohle RM, Gebauer R, Milting H, Schmidt U, Meder B, Rieß O, Paul T, Bajanowski T, Schunkert H. Postmortale molekulargenetische Untersuchungen (molekulare Autopsie) bei kardiovaskulären und bei ungeklärten Todesfällen. KARDIOLOGE 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12181-020-00438-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
|
6
|
Liebrechts-Akkerman G, Liu F, van Marion R, Dinjens WNM, Kayser M. Explaining sudden infant death with cardiac arrhythmias: Complete exon sequencing of nine cardiac arrhythmia genes in Dutch SIDS cases highlights new and known DNA variants. Forensic Sci Int Genet 2020; 46:102266. [PMID: 32145446 DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2019] [Revised: 01/23/2020] [Accepted: 02/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies suggested that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) can partially be genetically explained by cardiac arrhythmias; however, the number of individuals and populations investigated remain limited. We report the first SIDS study on cardiac arrhythmias genes from the Netherlands, a country with the lowest SIDS incidence likely due to parent education on awareness of environmental risk factors. By using targeted massively parallel sequencing (MPS) in 142 Dutch SIDS cases, we performed a complete exon screening of all 173 exons from 9 cardiac arrhythmias genes SCN5A, KCNQ1, KCNH2, KCNE1, KCNE2, CACNA1C, CAV3, ANK2 and KCNJ2 (∼34,000 base pairs), that were selected to harbour previously established SIDS-associated DNA variants. Motivated by the poor DNA quality from the paraffin embedded material used, the application of a conservative sequencing quality control protocol resulted in 102 SIDS cases surviving quality control. Amongst the 102 SIDS cases, we identified a total of 40 DNA variants in 8 cardiac arrhythmia genes found in 60 (58.8 %) cases. Statistical analyses using ancestry-adjusted reference population data and multiple test correction revealed that 13 (32.5 %) of the identified DNA variants in 6 cardiac arrhythmia genes were significantly associated with SIDS, which were observed in 15 (14.7 %) SIDS cases. These 13, and another three, DNA variants were classified as likely pathogenic for cardiac arrhythmias using the American College of Medical Genetics guidelines for interpretation of sequence variants. The 16 likely pathogenic DNA variants were found in 16 (15.7 %) SIDS cases, including i) 3 novel DNA variants not recorded in public databases ii) 7 known DNA variants for which significant SIDS association established here was previously unknown, and iii) 6 known DNA variants for which LQTS association was reported previously. By having replicated previously reported SIDS-associated DNA variants located in cardiac arrhythmia genes and by having highlighting novel SIDS-associated DNA variants in such genes, our findings provide additional empirical evidence for the partial genetic explanation of SIDS by cardiac arrhythmias. On a wider note, our study outcome stresses the need for routine post-mortem genetic screening of assumed SIDS cases, particularly for cardiac arrhythmia genes. When put in practise, it will allow preventing further sudden deaths (not only in infants) in the affected families, thereby allowing forensic molecular autopsy not only to provide answers on the cause of death, but moreover to save lives.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Germaine Liebrechts-Akkerman
- Department of Genetic Identification, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Fan Liu
- Department of Genetic Identification, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ronald van Marion
- Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Winand N M Dinjens
- Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Manfred Kayser
- Department of Genetic Identification, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Santori M, Gil R, Blanco-Verea A, Riuró H, Díaz-Castro Ó, López-Abel B, Brugada R, Carracedo Á, Pérez GJ, Scornik FS, Brion M. Sudden infant death as the most severe phenotype caused by genetic modulation in a family with atrial fibrillation. Forensic Sci Int Genet 2019; 43:102159. [PMID: 31522018 DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.102159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2019] [Revised: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
AIMS To assess the functional impact of two combined KCNH2 variants involved in atrial fibrillation, syncope and sudden infant death syndrome. METHODS AND RESULTS Genetic testing of a 4-month old SIDS victim identified a rare missense heterozygous in KCNH2 variant (V483I) and a missense homozygous polymorphism (K897T) which is often described as a genetic modifier. Electrophysiological characterisation of heterologous HERG channels representing two different KCNH2 genotypes within the family, showed significant differences in both voltage and time dependence of activation and inactivation with a global gain-of-function effect of mutant versus wild type channels and, also, differences between both types of recombinant channels. CONCLUSIONS The rare variant V483I in combination with K897T produces a gain-of-function effect that represents a pathological substrate for atrial fibrillation, syncope and sudden infant death syndrome events in this family. Ascertaining the genotype-phenotype correlation of genetic variants is imperative for the correct assessment of genetic testing and counselling. TRANSLATIONAL PERSPECTIVE According to the current guidelines for clinical interpretation of sequence variants, functional studies are an essential tool for the ascertainment of variant pathogenicity. They are especially relevant in the context of sudden infant death syndrome and sudden cardiac death, where individuals cannot be clinically evaluated. The patch-clamp technique is a gold-standard for analysis of the biophysical mechanisms of ion channels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Montserrat Santori
- Xenética Cardiovascular, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Grupo de Medicina Xenómica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
| | - Rocío Gil
- Xenética Cardiovascular, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Grupo de Medicina Xenómica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Alejandro Blanco-Verea
- Xenética Cardiovascular, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Grupo de Medicina Xenómica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Helena Riuró
- Cardiovascular Genetics Center, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Girona, Spain; Department of Medical Sciences, Medical School, Universitat de Girona, Spain
| | - Óscar Díaz-Castro
- Servizo de Cardioloxía, Hospital de Pontevedra, Servizo Galego de Saúde, Pontevedra, Spain
| | - Bernardo López-Abel
- Xenética Cardiovascular, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Servizo de Pediatría, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Ramón Brugada
- Cardiovascular Genetics Center, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Girona, Spain; Department of Medical Sciences, Medical School, Universitat de Girona, Spain; Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), Spain
| | - Ángel Carracedo
- Grupo de Medicina Xenómica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina Xenómica, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Guillermo J Pérez
- Department of Medical Sciences, Medical School, Universitat de Girona, Spain; Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), Spain
| | - Fabiana S Scornik
- Department of Medical Sciences, Medical School, Universitat de Girona, Spain; Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), Spain
| | - María Brion
- Xenética Cardiovascular, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Grupo de Medicina Xenómica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), Spain
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Affiliation(s)
- B van Driel
- Department of Physiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - M Michels
- Department of Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - J van der Velden
- Department of Physiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|