Sudden death while driving: Role of sinus perinodal degeneration and cardiac neural degeneration and ganglionitis

A young business executive was seen to slump over his steering wheel while driving, after which the automobile veered and turned over. Quickly taken unconscious to a nearby emergency room, he was pronounced dead on arrival. Because there was insufficient physical injury found to account for his death, and because atrial fibrillation had been detected for the first time on a routine physical examination 3 months previously, special examination of the cardiac conduction system was performed. A fibroma was present on the right side of the central fibrous body above the His bundle, similar to several fibromas on the mitral valve. Small foci of neuritis were present in the ventricular myocardium and the atrioventricular node. More extensive neural degeneration and ganglionitis were found near the sinus node, which also exhibited an encircling perinodal flbrosis. Ways in which these abnormalities could have caused a fatal electrical instability of the heart are discussed. Careful examination of the cardiac conduction system is warranted in other fatal automobile accidents under similar circumstances.