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Published on: September 27, 2020
Fatal Clostridium perfringens septicemia suggested by postmortem computed tomography: A medico-legal autopsy case
Rutsuko Yamaguchi1, Yohsuke Makino2, Fumiko Chiba1
1Department of Forensic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1, Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture 260-8670, Japan.
Abstract:
We report a fatal case of suspected Clostridium (Cl.) perfringens septicemia in a previously healthy woman in her eighties. At first, she presented at the hospital complaining of upper abdominal discomfort and vomiting, and was discharged the next day after ruling out any fatal conditions. However, her condition deteriorated approximately 10h after discharge and she died shortly after. The postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) performed 29h postmortem revealed an excessive systemic gas accumulation compared with the postmortem external appearance and time elapsed since her death, which suggested the presence of a gas-forming infection. Histopathological examination showed diffuse proliferation of Gram-positive bacilli in almost all the organ tissues, especially in blood vessels. Along with these findings, hyperthermia 3h postmortem, and severe anemia and thrombocytopenia without an obvious site of hemorrhage suggested hemolysis due to Cl. perfringens septicemia. These findings suggested the diagnosis before performing the conventional autopsy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report to describe PMCT findings of gas-forming infection and septicemia in contrast with the external appearance and histopathological findings in a medico-legal autopsy setting.
