Unexpected death due to right-sided infective endocarditis in a methamphetamine abuser.
A case of unexpected death due to right-sided infective endocarditis (IE) in a 44-year-old female methamphethamine abuser is presented. The woman was taken to a hospital by ambulance with a high fever having almost lost consciousness. She died about 6 h after admission. Autopsy revealed IE of the tricuspid valve. Septic thrombi from the lung were seen in other organs, and accordingly she was considered to have already been in a septic state on admission. Right-sided IE is relatively rare among the overall cases of IE, and is considered to result in good prognosis. It is also considered that right-sided IE occurs commonly among addictive drug abusers. We should therefore bear in mind that the presence of right-sided IE may be a predicting factor of drug abuse even if the injection site is not clearly visible, and for this reason, a toxicological analysis of the addictive drugs should be carried out.
Takasaki
Tomoya
T
Department of Forensic Pathology and Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Nishida
Naoki
N
Esaki
Rie
R
Ikeda
Noriaki
N
D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications*
D008694:Methamphetamine