Case ReportUnexpected neonatal death caused by interrupted aortic arch, an uncommon congenital great vessel malformation: An autopsy case report
Introduction
Autopsies on infants who die suddenly and unexpectedly can sometimes exhibit a lack of remarkable pathological findings; however, in a small number of cases, macroscopic abnormalities clarifying the cause of death may be present. We present an autopsy case in which interrupted aortic arch (IAA) was recorded along with intracardiac malformations and severe biventricular hypertrophy.
Section snippets
Clinical history
A 21-day-old Japanese male infant unexpectedly became inactive at home and stopped drinking milk; 3 h prior, he had looked normal and had ingested 70 ml of milk. The mother’s pregnancy and term delivery had been unremarkable, and the infant had a birth weight of 2655 g. He was taken to an emergency clinic and transferred to an intensive care unit because he was found to be in a serious hypoxic state. Despite mechanical ventilation and repeated adrenaline infusion, the infant died soon after
Discussion
In the present case, the isthmus was the site of aortic interruption; we diagnosed a type A IAA according to the Celoria and Patton classification [1], [2]. IAA is an uncommon congenital malformation, occurring in approximately 3 per million births [3]; it is defined as a complete lack of luminal continuity between the ascending and descending thoracic aorta. From the developmental point of view, this abnormality appears to result from regression or atrophy of the left dorsal aorta and left
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Cited by (1)
Neonatal death caused by interrupted aortic arch associated with 22q11.2 Deletion syndrome: An autopsy case report
2019, American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology