Postmortem diagnosis of gestational psittacosis: A case report

Gestational psittacosis is one of the causes of unanticipated maternal death but has been difficult to diagnose early in clinical practice.

A 28-year-old woman who was 7 months pregnant experienced flu-like symptoms, which deteriorated. She was brought to our hospital in shock, and the fetus was nonviable. The patient was diagnosed with pneumonia and septic shock and administered meropenem. Despite aggressive resuscitation, she died 7 h after symptom onset. After obtaining consent from the patient's family, the autopsy was done to identify the cause of death. Microscopically, there was intervillous neutrophil accumulation in the placenta. Genetic analysis detected the Chlamydia psittaci gene in several organs, including placenta.

Gestational psittacosis should be considered for a pregnant woman with flu-like symptoms. Moreover, unanticipated death of a pregnant woman might warrant a detailed autopsy to reveal the cause of death.