Cardiac tamponade secondary to fulminant myocarditis - A case of custodial death

Cardiac tamponade following rupture of the heart occurs very rapidly, resulting in a fatal fall in the cardiac output and circulatory collapse. Spontaneous cardiac rupture is an uncommon occurrence and that too occurring secondary to myocarditis is a very rare event. Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium and its clinical presentation is highly variable. Due to its highly variable clinical presentation, the diagnosis is frequently made at autopsy. In this article, we report death of a prisoner due to cardiac tamponade following right ventricular rupture secondary to fulminant myocarditis.