A case of sudden death from primary intracranial germinoma complicated by microvascular disease of the heart
- 作者：Lau ; Gilbert ; Sng ; Ivy
- 关键词：Hypothalamic germinoma ; Hypopituitarism ; Cardiac microvascular disease ; Sudden death
- 刊名：Forensic Science International
- 出版年：2003
- 期刊代码：104_03790738
- 类别：med
- 出版时间：October 14, 2003
- 卷：137
- 期：1
- 页码：1-5
- 文件大小：487 K
摘要
A coroner’s autopsy conducted on an 11.5-year-old girl, with a history of hypopituitarism, manifesting as growth hormone deficiency associated with short stature, demonstrated the presence of an undiagnosed hypothalamic intracranial germinoma, showing hypophyseal and mesencephalic invasion, together with histological evidence of microvascular (small coronary artery) disease of the heart. The substantive, or primary, cause of her sudden death was clearly the intracranial germinoma, which was acutely haemorrhagic and necrotic. However, it is postulated that there might be an, as yet, undescribed association between this malignancy and the pathogenesis of the coronary microvascular disease; the latter being deemed, in this instance, to be a contributory cause of death.