Neisseria meningitidis Isolated in Postmortem Vitreous Humor in a Death Due to Meningococcal Sepsis.

Sepsis remains a difficult diagnosis at autopsy. With respect to meningococcal sepsis, a timely and definite diagnosis is critical because it requires public health department notification and the administration of prophylactic antibiotics to potential close contacts. A previous case series, in which both blood and cerebrospinal fluid were unavailable, suggested vitreous humor polymerase chain reaction might be a useful test in diagnosing meningococcal sepsis. We describe a fatal case of meningococcal sepsis where Neisseria meningitidis was detected in both vitreous humor and blood polymerase chain reaction, in addition to positive blood cultures. This gives further support to using microbiology of vitreous humor in suspected meningococcal sepsis, especially when microbiology samples are limited.