ABSTRACT

Cystic echinococcosis, which is caused by a parasite called Echinococcus granulosus, is a disease frequently find in the liver and in the lungs. In many countries, it is an important public-health problem. This study was done to find out the prevalence of Cystic echinococcosis in forensic autopsies performed for sudden death cases. This investigation was realized between July 2003-January 2004 at Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institution. During this six month period, total of 1687 autopsies were performed. Of those, 56 autopsy cases had macroscopic unknown cysts. The sera obtained from these 56 autopsy cases were examined by IgG Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and IgG Indirect Hemaglutination (IHA) methods. In the end of the serologic evaluation, of 56 cases with macroscopic unknown etiology cysts, 34 cases (60.7%) were serologically positive for cystic echinococcosis, of those 8 were females (14.2%) and 26 were males (46.4%). This study shows that cyst echinococcosis may be find frequently in postmortem cases. The fact that the people who perform autopsies must work carefully and in hygienic conditions is another important lesson obtained from the study.

Keywords: Cyst echinococcosis, cause of death, autopsy, epidemiology