Sudden death of a young woman due to aortic dissection caused by Turner's syndrome.

A 24-year-old woman was found dead in her bed. There had been an episode of fainting with cervicodynia 1 day before death but no significant past medical history, except for menstrual irregularities. Post-mortem examination revealed that death was due to hemopericardium caused by rupture of the ascending aorta by thoracic aortic dissection (Stanford type A). Microscopically, weakness of the aorta was due to cystic medial necrosis. On external examination, short stature, a short neck and multiple pigmented nevi were observed, while internal examination revealed coarctation of the aorta and funicular ovaries. Examination of the X chromatin showed a decrease in numbers of Barr bodies in the tissues, and a 45,X/46,XX mosaicism was suspected. It is concluded that the cause of death was aortic dissection due to Turner's syndrome.