Journal of forensic and legal medicine
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Positional asphyxia refers to a situation where there is compromise of respiration because of splinting of the chest and/or diaphragm preventing normal respiratory excursion, or occlusion of the upper airway due to abnormal positioning of the body. Examination of autopsy files at Forensic Science SA revealed instances where positional asphyxia resulted from inadvertent positioning that compromised respiration due to intoxication, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson disease, Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, Lafora disease and quadriplegia. ⋯ We would not exclude the possibility of individuals with significant cardiac disease succumbing to positional asphyxia, as cardiac disease may be either unrelated to the terminal episode or, alternatively, may result in collapse predisposing to positional asphyxia. Victims of positional asphyxia do not extricate themselves from dangerous situations due to impairment of cognitive responses and coordination resulting from intoxication, sedation, neurological diseases, loss of consciousness, physical impairment or physical restraints.
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A 21-year-old man, in whom abnormal nodules had been detected in bilateral lung fields with no clinical symptoms for two years, was admitted to the hospital with sudden cardiopulmonary arrest. Acute pulmonary embolism with a large embolus was diagnosed, but the patient died soon after admission. When the examination was compared with X-ray taken 4 days earlier by chance, a large tumor was now detected in the right heart and was suspected to be the cause of this complication after his death. ⋯ Many old myxoma fragments were noted in the bilateral peripheral branch of the pulmonary artery. It was concluded that the abnormal nodules were old pulmonary fragments and the cause of death was pulmonary embolism of a large fragment originated from the atrial myxoma. An asymptomatic right atrial myxoma is extremely rare but nevertheless possible to unexpected death like this case.