Abstract: The expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) was first studied in 61 cases of early myocardial infarction. The results revealed that all 24 cases of proven infarcts was positive in nuclei of myocardium and vascular endothelium, and that some was positive in cytoplasm, especially in myocardium around the border zone of infarction. Of 21 suspected infarcts cases, 17 showed strong positive and 4 mild positive. In the control group of 16 samples, only 3 was mild positive sparsely in nuclei of myocardium and vascular endothelium. PI of control group was significantly lower than that of proven and suspected infarcts (P< 0.01). There was no significant difference between PI of proven infarcts and suspected infarcts (P >0.05). These findings suggest that SABC－ bFGF method could be used for morphologic diagnosis of early myocardial infarction of sudden cardiac death.

Key words: basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death