This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Karl Speiser, MD
Medical Department Stadtspital Waid Zurich

JAMA. 1985;254(17):2408.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Sudden unexplained nocturnal deaths (SUND) among Southeast Asian males, as described in a CASE REPORT in THE JOURNAL,¹ is known in Japan as pok-kuri disease and in the Philippines as bangungut.² In a recent pathological study of SUND from Japan,³ fulminant deletion of myoglobin from myocardial fibers in multiple disseminated foci, with deposition of myoglobin in the interstitium, was found. It was speculated that the multiple necroses were due to functional spasm of main coronary branches in a state of vagotonia during sleep. The terminal event might be ventricular fibrillation caused by diffusion of potassium from necrotic sites. Another communication suggested that there may be congenital lesions of the conduction system in victims of SUND.⁴

Because subjects prone to SUND are healthy men of younger age, screening of the East Asian (immigrant) population seems impossible. Awareness by relatives and prompt delivery of resuscitation . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?