Tuberculous myocarditis is a rare finding. We present the case of a 33-year-old woman who was in good health and who died suddenly at home. Autopsy and histopathologic examinations revealed granulamatous lesions in the myocardium, lungs, lymph nodes, liver, and spleen. No fast acid bacilli were demonstrated on histological examination. The presence of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA complex was identified using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded histological samples. An HIV test carried out on the blood obtained during the autopsy was negative according to the DNA amplification technique (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay serological test. We hypothesize that the mechanism of death was severe ventricular arrhythmia due to granulomatous proliferation in the structures of the interventricular septum.
Estimation of the time since death is a practical task in daily forensic casework but available methods lack reliability especially in complex deaths and after long PM period. MirRNA analysis should be ideally an useful ancillary tool as it proved to be sensitive in forensics especially for body fluid identification.\ud
Here we analyzed 10 miRNAs with a supposed role in circadian rhythms through an RT-qPCR assay in postmortem samples of blood (n = 12) and vitreous humor (n = 12) from individuals died in the day or at night, in order to find those with an oscillating pattern of variation. The expression stability of four endogenous controls was also tested to find the most suitable for normalization.SNORD95 proved to be the best and was used in both body fluids. Four miRNAs showed significant differential expression between individuals died at daytime and at nighttime, mir-106b and mir-96 in vitreal samples and mir-142-5p and mir-219 in blood. Results are preliminary and limited to the small sample set. Future studies on more samples and with additional markers are needed to further elucidate the role of miRNA profiling in postmortem contexts and how useful they would be as “chronobiomarkers” for time of death determinatio
Parvovirus B19 infection during pregnancy can be transmitted to the fetus through the placenta. The consequences for the health of the fetus are very variable and can be very serious. They include intrauterine fetal death (IUFD) and miscarriage, which can lead to medico-forensic questions. For the most part, cases of IUFD take place during the second trimester of gestation and present an anatomopathologic picture characteristic of fetal infection with hydrops, placental edema, serous effusion, and erythroblastosis with nuclear inclusions. Endocardial fibroelastosis, medullar and thymic hypoplasia, and hepatic hemosiderosis are frequently present. In the third trimester, the cases are less frequent, not accompanied by hydrops, and can depend more on placental compromise than on direct infection of the fetus. We present 5 cases of IUFD resulting from parvovirus B19 and we discuss the pathogenetic and anatomopathologic aspects and obstetric liability. In 4 cases, the IUFD took place suddenly, in the absence of symptoms, in women who had not previously shown any symptom of the viral infection. In one case, the patient was hospitalized following an ultrasound diagnosis of fetal hydrops and IUFD took place 5 days after admission. Of these cases 3 were verified in the second trimester and 2 in the third trimester. Only the cases of the second trimester and one of the 2 cases of the third trimester presented the characteristic aspects of fetal infection. The other case of third trimester was characterized by placental involvement.
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