Sudden death of neuromyelitis optica: A case report of clinical missed diagnosis

L. Zhuo, S. Zhu, T. Sun, R. Wang, L. Ren, L. Liu

Abstract: Deaths of clinical miss-diagnosed diseases are caused by various reasons. Similar symptoms shared by different diseases and the recent medical history could affect the judgement of clinicians sometimes, especially when the disease is unusually found. We present a case of sudden death in hospital. Patient was admitted with sudden visual loss and quadriplegia. He died suddenly without certain pathogenesis next day. The medical history showed he had head injury recently. The autopsy revealed scattered inflammatory demyelination in optic nerves and spinal cord. Postmortem serological testing showed positive result of neuromyelitis optica-IgG. Therefore, the cause of death is severe respiratory distress due to acute neuromyelitis optica.
Keywords: neuromyelitis optica; autopsy; sudden death; forensic pathology.