Vascular causes of sudden death in infancy, childhood, and adolescence

Abstract

Vascular causes of sudden death in infancy, childhood, and adolescence range from primary disorders of the vasculature involving structural compromise, as in anomalous coronary arteries, to vascular problems that may arise as secondary phenomena, such as the infectious arteritides. The etiology of the underlying condition may be understood, as in fatal pulmonary thromboembolism, or it may be shrouded in mystery, as in idiopathic arterial calcinosis. The absence of a clinical history indicating an underlying vascular problem in a number of disorders that may cause sudden childhood death underlines the importance of a meticulous autopsy examination in such cases.