[Pathologic findings in diethylene glycol poisoning].

We are reporting the necropsy findings of 7 patients poisoned with diethylene glycol-contaminated propolis (a rubbery substance produced by bees from vegetal resins). Besides the well-known features of hydropic necrosis of centrolobular areas in the liver and renal tubules we found acute pancreatitis with diffuse enzymatic fat necrosis which in two of the cases was considered the secondary cause of death, and acute demyelinating lesions in the central and peripheral nervous system. Six out of the 7 cases showed glomerular PAS-positive arteriolar hyalinosis at the vascular pole, in two of them widely disseminated. Differing from the findings reported in ethylene glycol poisoning we could not find calcium oxalate crystals in any of the cases. The pancreatic, central and peripheral nervous system lesions as well as the glomerular arteriolar hyalinosis have not been previously described in the literature in relation with diethylene glycol poisoning.