Toxic Myocarditis Caused by Acetaminophen in a Multidrug Overdose.

We report the case of an 18-year-old woman with personality disorders who was hospitalized a few hours after suicidal ingestion of acetaminophen, quetiapine, acetylsalicylic acid, and ethanol. Twelve hours after admission, severe liver damage was evident, but the patient was stable and awaiting hepatic transplantation. Electrolytes were successfully controlled. The condition of the liver stabilized. Cardiac biomarkers then deteriorated unexpectedly. Localized ST-segment elevations were noted on electrocardiogram, but angiography ruled out myocardial infarction. A computed tomographic scan ruled out cerebral edema. The patient died of irreversible cardiac arrest 40 hours after admission. Heart failure remained unexplained, and the body underwent forensic autopsy.At autopsy, histologic findings were indicative of acute toxic myocarditis and were concluded to be caused by acetaminophen intoxication. Acetaminophen overdose is common and typically leads to liver failure requiring supportive treatment and emergency liver transplantation. Toxic myocarditis is an extremely rare complication of acetaminophen overdose. It has only been reported 4 times in the literature despite the widespread use and misuse of acetaminophen. Toxic myocarditis remains a possibility in many cases of overdose but can be overlooked in a clinical picture dominated by hepatorenal failure and encephalopathy. Clinicians and forensic pathologists should be aware of this rare potential complication.

A case of fatal idiosyncratic reaction to the designer drug 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and review of the literature.

The stimulant designer drug 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) was first synthesized by Boehringer Ingelheim in 1969 and introduced on the black market in 2006. Only a small number of fatal intoxication cases have been reported in the literature, all with significant blood MDPV concentrations. In this report, we describe one fatality attributed to an idiosyncratic reaction to MDPV. The victim displayed agitation, violent behavior and delirium followed by cardiac arrest. Hyperthermia was observed at the hospital. The MDPV cardiac and femoral blood concentrations were 6 ng/mL. The presence of excited delirium syndrome and MDPV, a drug with a pharmacology similar to cocaine, leads to the conclusion that the victim suffered a fatal adverse reaction to MDPV. This is the first published case of idiosyncratic reaction to MDPV.

[Sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen (SANT): a case report]. / Transformation angiomatoïde nodulaire sclérosante de la rate (TANS): présentation d'un cas.

We report a case of sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen incidently discovered in a 41-year-old man. The macroscopic examination showed the presence of a reddish brown, well delineated but not encapsulated, multinodular lesion being histologically characterized by nodules made up of complex vascular structures lined by monomorphous but non atypical endothelial cells, surrounded by fibrin and a collagen stroma rich in spumous macrophages and hemosiderophages. The immunohistochemical markers carried out showed the presence of capillaries, veins and sinusoids normally found within the splenic parenchyma, but adopting an unusual configuration. This distinct entity, recently described and completely benign, must be included in the differential diagnosis of the vascular lesions of the spleen, which includes, among others, the hemangioma, the littoral cell angioma, the hemangioendothelioma and the inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor.