An autopsy case of mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) with intestinal bleeding in chronic renal failure.

A 50-year-old man who underwent hemodialysis (HD) at local outpatient HD center due to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) was transferred to our hospital because of pneumonia. He had severe emaciation and past history of congestive heart failure. Presenting symptoms almost consistently involved difficulty in hearing and recurrent attacks of migraine-like headaches. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, showing diastolic mechanical dyssynchrony by tissue Doppler echocardiography. On the day of death, he had hematemesis and hemorrhagic shock. Autopsy revealed perforation of duodenum, and genetic analysis using mitochondrial DNA from cardiac muscle and iliopsoas muscle revealed a 3243A > G mutation in the mitochondrial tRNA(Leu(UUR)) gene, which is related to mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS). Multiple organ failure due to the mutation of mitochondrial DNA with gastrointestinal bleeding is not a common.