Fatal intoxication with naftidrofuryl

A 52-year-old man was found dead in his bed. He had financial and psychosocial problems like separation from his wife and children or unemployment due to alcoholism. Under treatment of disulfiram he was presently abstinent from alcohol. As he had suffered from epileptic seizures and dizziness, he received valproic acid and the vasodilator naftidrofuryl, respectively. Autopsy showed no morphologic cause of death. Chemical analysis of blood revealed concentrations for valproic acid and disulfiram in the therapeutic and above the therapeutic range but far below the lethal level, respectively. No ethanol was found. However, the very high concentration of 7500 μg/L naftidrofuryl in whole blood was considered as cause of death, and the most probable manner of death seemed to be suicide. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a fatal poisoning with naftidrofuryl.