Acute Myocardial Infarction due to Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy: An Autopsy Report

Korean J Leg Med 2018;42:92-97

Department of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea,

Medical Examiner's Office, National Forensic Service, Wonju, Korea,

Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, E-mail: sdlee@snu.ac.kr

After the Organ Transplant Act was enforced in 2000, the criteria for the diagnosis of brain death have been legalized, and cardiac transplantation has become a promising treatment choice for patients with chronic heart disease. Even though more than hundreds of cases have been accumulated in the national registry and the survival rates are increasing, the compliance of longterm survivors may decrease paradoxically, which can hinder the efforts to enhance the quality of the registry. The patients who are lost from the doctor’s surveillance and die outside hospitals should be appropriately examined to determine the cause of death so that the influence of their medical condition, if any, on their death could be revealed. Here, we report an autopsy case of a patient who died of a complication of chronic rejection after cardiac transplantation.

Key Words: Heart transplantation; Graft rejection; Coronary vessels; Cause of death; Myocardial infarction