ABSTRACT
Among the younger age group, nonatherosclerotic but coronary causes of sudden death have included anomalies of origin, number and courses of these arteries and isolated dissection of 1 or more coronary arteries. The authors encountered another nonatherosclerotic type of coronary abnormality associated with sudden death in a football player. The heart weighed 480 g and the ventricular septum and left ventricular free wall measured up to 1.9 cm in thickness. The right, left main, left anterior descending and left circumflex coronary arteries arose and coursed normally and their lumens were widely patent. Microscopic examination disclosed that the 'occlusion' was the result of intussusception of a portion of media and intima. Intussusception, an invagination or prolapse of a tubular wall into an adjacent portion, has been reported to involve the aorta, an elastic artery, in dissecting aneurysm but not a coronary artery, and sudden death by this mechanism has not been reported previously.
