Biomarkers in Forensic Diagnosis of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD)

Abstract

Diagnosis of sudden cardiac death (SCD) is challenging for medical professionals. For this reason, to make diagnosis easier for forensic pathologists, there is a pressing need for the use of bio-markers. This article highlights biomarkers that can be used in the postmortem diagnosis of SCD. Cardiac troponins, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and cre-atine kinase-MB have proven to be very useful for this purpose. Lactate dehydrogenase, myoglobin and tumor necrosis factor α, al-though useful, are not efficient enough to be included in the list of biomarkers for the diagnosis of SCD. Previous studies have shown both positive and negative results for natriuretic peptides as a biomarker, and further studies are required to confirm its use as a biomarker for diagnosis of SCD in autopsy cases. In living subjects, a multi-marker strategy is useful in predicting risk of cardiovascular deaths. It is suggested that for the diagnosis of SCD, a multi-marker strategy may be more efficient. However, more studies are required to confirm this.