Results
We found a total of 46 pregnancy-related deaths attributed
to pulmonary embolism in Virginia and Florida between
January 1999 and December 2007. Type of delivery was
known in all but one case. In 37 of the 46 cases, medical
examiner death investigation records or autopsies were
reviewed. In the remaining nine cases without postmortem
investigation, hospital death records were reviewed.
The following records were available for review: prenatal
(n
=
34; 73.9 % of all cases) and delivery (n
=
30; 85.7 %
of cases in which there was a delivery). Eleven cases (23.9 %
of all cases) had neither prenatal nor delivery records. In
seven of these 11 cases, death occurred during the pregnancy,
at 7–23 weeks estimated gestational age. In the remaining
four cases, death occurred 12–31 days after discharge fol-
lowing delivery. Available death records included hospital
(n
=
32; 69.6 % of all cases), medical examiner death