Evaluation of eosin-fluorescence in the diagnosis of sudden cardiac death

The diagnostic significance of the eosin-fluorescence method was evaluated and compared with the enzymehistochemical β-hydroxybutyrate-dehydrogenase method (β-HBDH) and the degree of hyperchromasia in 568 samples from 24 β-HBDH-negative and β-HBDH-positive sudden cardiac deaths (SCD) and 23 non-cardiac deaths as controls. The effect of autolysis was investigated separately on isolated human hearts at +4°C and +22°C. All samples were examined without any knowledge of clinical or autopsy data. Normal olive-green fluorescence was observed in only five individuals of the control group and two in the β-HBDH-negative one. The frequency of the yellow-fluorescence and hyperchromasia increased from the control subjects towards the β-HBDH-positive-ones. The difference in frequency distribution of fluorescence between the groups was statistically highly significant (P < 0.001). The change in fluorescence did not correlate with the loss of β-HBDH-reaction or the distribution pattern of hyperchromasia. Postmortem autolysis did not change the fluorescence significantly but the 78% wrong positive subjects in the control group render this method too sensitive and unreliable for medicolegal purposes.