Fatty liver in sudden childhood death. Implications for Reye's syndrome?
H. J. Bonnell and J. B. Beckwith
We studied the livers of 21 children dying a traumatic death or sudden
unexpected natural death and found that fatty metamorphosis of the liver
appears to be ubiquitous. Therefore, the finding of microvesicular
panlobular fatty liver alone does not justify the diagnosis of Reye's
syndrome. In fact, because fatty change appears to be so prevalent,
previous reports that relied on fatty changes as diagnostic of Reye's
syndrome cannot be validated.
