STILLBIRTH DUE TO UNRECOGNIZED CARDIAC ANOMALY: A FORENSIC AUTOPSY CASE REPORT

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the result of a complicated interplay between genetic and non-genetic, or “environmental,” factors acting on the foetus and one of those environmental factors is maternal hyperglycemia. Maternal diabetes has teratogenic effects on the evolution of the foetal cardiovascular system; as a consequence, cardiovascular malformations are the most common anomalies in infants of diabetic mothers with transposition of the great arteries, tricuspid atresia and truncus arteriosus being some of the common cardiac malformations encountered. Thus, it is important to perform a detailed heart examination at autopsy of perinatal deaths in order to ascertain related anomalies. We present a case of stillbirth in a woman with Type 1 Diabetes mellitus on insulin therapy who claims she was unaware about her pregnancy.