title: Sudden death of a 7-year-old boy due to undiagnosed glioblastoma.
abstract: We present a case of sudden death of a 7-year-old boy who at autopsy was found to have an undiagnosed glioblastoma. The boy was asymptomatic until 2 hours before death complaining of a headache and was later found unresponsive in bed. A medicolegal autopsy was notable for a large hemorrhagic mass of the right frontal lobe, which on analysis was diagnostic of a glioblastoma. We feel that this is a unique case for 2 main reasons; high-grade gliomas of the cerebral cortex are rare in the pediatric population, and it is unusual for a large neoplasm to remain asymptomatic until 2 hours prior to death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Virginia Health System, 1215 Lee Street, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0214, USA. jts7c@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Jocelyn T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: Peter M E
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.forename: Gary W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: M Beatriz S
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Lopes
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000473:pathology*; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male