Fatal complement-induced leukostasis after diatrizoate injection. Principles of clinicopathologic diagnosis.

A case of fatal radiographic contrast medium (RCM)-induced pulmonary granulocyte aggregation (leukostasis) showed massive elevation of the postmortem histamine level. Suspicion of this phenomenon in diverse clinical settings permits clinical and pathological documentation via increased plasma levels of C3a and other means. The existence of effective prophylaxis stimulates a search for predictive tests.