Correlations between clinical and postmortem findings in listeriosis.

Clinical data were correlated with postmortem findings in 14 cases of fatal listeriosis in adults and 23 cases of listeriosis during pregnancy and the neonatal period. Most children born with congenital listeriosis showed the typical morphological picture of granulomatosis infantiseptica. Occasionally no pathological changes were demonstrable. In adult patients the morphological lesions were those of non-specific purulent meningoencephalitis or septicemia. Sometimes encephalitis with abscesses in the brain was found.