Double-chambered left ventricle - a 'heart within a heart'

摘要

A 20-year-old previously well man drowned after performing a back-flip off a bridge into a river. At autopsy no significant injuries or organic illness were identified. An unusual incidental finding was a double chambered left ventricle, or so-called "heart within a heart", with the left ventricle subdivided into two separate chambers by a muscular septum. Awareness of this entity in forensic casework is important as this anomaly, despite its dramatic appearance, is not associated with anomalous conduction tracts or arrhythmogenic conditions, and so is usually a completely incidental finding at autopsy.