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Fresh cell therapy followed by fatal coma

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Summary

A 60-year-old woman received a 3-day course of nine injections of “fresh” cells from fetal lamb ovary, placenta, brain (hypothalamus) and liver. There were no immediate complications, but a few days later she developed headache, fever and hemiparesis. She subsequently fell into a coma and died 3 weeks after her fresh cell therapy and 2 weeks after the onset of her clinical symptoms. Autopsy revealed perivenous leucoencephalopathy with a probably steroid-treatment-induced paucity of perivascular inflammation. Fresh cell therapy, clinical symptomatology and morphological findings suggest, though do not prove, that this patient's monophasic and probably immune-mediated disease is a rare and fatal complication of fresh cell therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neuropathology, University of Mainz, Langenbeckstrasse 1, D-6500, Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany

    H. H. Goebel

  2. Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany

    G. Walther

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Frankenthal Municipal Hospital, Federal Republic of Germany

    M. Meuth

Authors
  1. H. H. Goebel
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  2. G. Walther
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  3. M. Meuth
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Goebel, H.H., Walther, G. & Meuth, M. Fresh cell therapy followed by fatal coma. J Neurol 233, 242–247 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314028

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314028

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