Inagaki Takeshi, Sakamoto Atsushi
第17回 自治医科大学シンポジウム 2018年9月5日 自治医科大学
【F-29】(F: 医学部教職員)[ポスター発表]
We encountered four autopsy cases of sudden infant death in which involvement of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) was suspected. Case 1 involved a 16-day-old boy who caught a cold and completely recovered. Five days after catching the cold, a few hours after a night cry, he was found apneic and unresponsive. Case 2 involved a 5-week-old girl, Case 3 involved a 7-week-old girl. In both cases, several hours after a night cry, she was found unresponsive. Case 4 involved a 9-week-old girl who was found unresponsive in a prone position, several hours after she was confirmed that sleeping in a semiprone position. Case 1, 2 and 4 were normal birth and development. Case 3 was born by vacuum extraction without other remarkable growth history.
In all cases, PDAs were recognized on autopsy, but had been asymptomatic and clinically undiagnosed (silent PDA). In case 1, 2 and 3, because the lungs showed a tendency to sink in a hydrostatic lung test and inflammatory changes such as lymphocytic infiltration mainly into the bronchioles was evident on histopathological examination, we diagnosed bronchial pneumonia as the direct cause of death. In case 4, because she was found in a prone position and mild abrasion was observed around her mouth and nose, we estimated that smothering was the direct cause of death. However, the lesions and injuries of these four cases were relatively mild. In case 1, 2 and 3, changes of the lung lesions were considered too mild to fully account for the speed and prime cause of death, and reactions to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) tests were faint. In case 4, lungs showed extensive congestion, but no significant congestion in other organs and no petechiae was found. We therefore concluded that persistent cardiac load or some kind of circulatory stress from the comorbid PDA was eventually involved in the process of sudden death in these cases.
PDA is a rather common cardiovascular malformation, and many infants with PDA may develop normally. Since detection of PDA has been difficult, especially in asymptomatic case, and even silent PDA can lead to sudden infant death with complications such as RSV infection or occlusion of mouth and nose, we emphasize the importance of paying attention to the probability of undiagnosed PDA in forensic autopsy for cases of sudden infant death.