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Updated: Aug 2, 2026
Murine Fetal Echocardiography
Published on: February 15, 2013
An autopsy case of sudden infant death caused by cardiac fibroma
Wataru Irie1, Fumiko Satoh1, Chizuko Sasaki1
1Department of Legal Medicine, Kitasato University School of Medicine, 1-15-1, Kitazato, Minami-ku, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan.
A one-month-old girl in good health being carried by her mother in a baby carrier suddenly went into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead. A forensic autopsy was performed. On the heart, which weighed 63.6 g, a single large, well-defined, round, white tumor was observed in the left ventricular wall. Tumor cells with spindle-shaped small nuclei proliferated along with collagen fiber proliferation. The diagnosis was cardiac fibroma. The tumor had compressed the left bundle branch, causing fatal arrhythmia and death. This case report describes sudden infant death caused by a primary cardiac fibroma, diagnosed postmortem.
A one-month-old girl in good health being carried by her mother in a baby carrier suddenly went into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead. A forensic autopsy was performed. On the heart, which weighed 63.6 g, a single large, well-defined, round, white tumor was observed in the left ventricular wall. Tumor cells with spindle-shaped small nuclei proliferated along with collagen fiber proliferation. The diagnosis was cardiac fibroma. The tumor had compressed the left bundle branch, causing fatal arrhythmia and death. This case report describes sudden infant death caused by a primary cardiac fibroma, diagnosed postmortem.
