Isolated coronary periarteritis: report of a case of unexpected death in a young pregnant woman.

A case of sudden unexpected death in a 23 year old woman in her 8th month of pregnancy is reported. Death occurred from isolated coronary periarteritis with thrombosis. It is believed that the thrombosis was secondary to the adventitial infiltrate, which was of a type suggesting a hypersensitivity factor. It is proposed that pathogenetically this case is identical to reported cases of dissecting hemorrhage or aneurysm of the coronary artery and represents an entity different from other forms of inflammatory coronary disease.