Pulmonary embolus as cause of death in an adolescent: demonstration on postmortem CT.
Computed tomography (CT) is widely accepted in adult forensic death investigations (determination of cause and manner of death) but is only beginning to play a larger role in the cause of death determination in infants and children. We present a case of an adolescent with nephrotic syndrome who sustained cardiac arrest and died in the emergency department. A postmortem CT was requested by the state Office of the Medical Examiner as part of the medicolegal death investigation. Postmortem CT showed a saddle pulmonary embolus that was confirmed on conventional autopsy, demonstrating a natural manner of death.
['Harty|Mary P|MP|0000-0001-7221-9771', 'Harcke|H Theodore|HT|', 'Gould|Sharon W|SW|', 'Sukula-Perlman|Adrienne|A|']
D000293:Adolescent D001344:Autopsy D002423:Cause of Death D006801:Humans D008297:Male D011655:Pulmonary Embolism D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Pulmonary embolus Adolescent Postmortem Computed tomography Autopsy Chest