Legal Medicine
Volume 5, Issue 1 , Pages 65-68, March 2003

Unexpected death due to right-sided infective endocarditis in a methamphetamine abuser

  • Tomoya Takasaki

      Affiliations

    • Department of Forensic Pathology and Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
    • Division of Maxillofacial Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences, Faculty of Dental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
    • ,
  • Naoki Nishida

      Affiliations

    • Department of Forensic Pathology and Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
    • ,
  • Rie Esaki

      Affiliations

    • Department of Forensic Pathology and Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
    • ,
  • Noriaki Ikeda

      Affiliations

    • Department of Forensic Pathology and Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +81-92-642-6124; fax: +81-92- 642-6126

Received 20 December 2001; received in revised form 23 May 2002; accepted 6 August 2002.

Abstract 

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.

Keywords: Right sided infective endocarditis, Addictive drug abuser, Methamphetamine, Unexpected death

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PII: S1344-6223(02)00058-5

Legal Medicine
Volume 5, Issue 1 , Pages 65-68, March 2003

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