Chauhan Mohit, Behera Chittaranjan, Madireddi Sreenivas, Mandal Shramana, Khanna Sunil Kumar
1 Department of Forensic Medicine, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Haryana, India.
2 Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Med Sci Law. 2018 Jul;58(3):189-193. doi: 10.1177/0025802418786120. Epub 2018 Jul 3.
Pulmonary metastasis is a well-known complication of an invasive mole. However, sudden death due to haemoptysis resulting from a metastatic invasive mole is extremely rare. We report the sudden unexpected death of an 18-year-old primigravida following a molar pregnancy. The death event was complicated within a few days of presentation by a clinically unsuspected mole invading the lung vasculature with associated widespread metastatic calcifications in the liver and brain. Death was due to haemorrhagic shock as a result of massive haemoptysis resulting from the invasive mole metastasising to the pulmonary vasculature. This was substantiated with a post-mortem computed tomography and gross and histopathological findings at autopsy. This case highlights the need for a high index of suspicion about potentially life-threatening pulmonary metastasis in women with trophoblastic diseases.