Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) during superacute haemolysis in a patient with ovarian dermatoid cyst treated with rifampicin.

A 53-year-old female patient with ovarian dermatoid cyst and lung tuberculosis had been treated with rifampicin. During repeated rifampicin treatment she developed an acute haemolytic syndrome with haemorrhagic diathesis. Laboratory findings showed that it was caused by disseminated intravascular coagulation. Death ensued despite intensive administration of heparin and Trasylol. It is assumed that the repeated rifampicin application had provoked massive haemolysis by an allergic mechanism leading to thrombofibrinolytic haemorrhagic diathesis.