Israeli scientist reveals cause of death of Queen of Sweden after 340 years

Professor Zaid Abbasi of the Technion and two colleagues have determined that Queen Christina of Sweden, who ruled in the 17th century, died of sepsis caused by undiagnosed diabetes. The study was published in the Swedish journal Lakartidningen.

Professor Zaid Abbasi from the Technion Faculty of Medicine and Rambam Hospital in Haifa, together with Professors Rolf Barth (Ohio State University) and Luis Maximilian Buja (University of Texas), published a study revealing the cause of death of Queen Christina of Sweden, who died in 1689. The researchers concluded that the queen suffered from undiagnosed diabetes, which caused a chronic leg wound and a bacterial infection that developed into fatal sepsis. The study is based on analysis of historical documents, including an autopsy report found in a private archive in Vienna. Christina reigned from 1632 to 1654, abdicated the throne, left Sweden, and died in Rome at the age of 62. Previously, in 1965, exhumation of her remains confirmed scoliosis and the female sex of the skeleton, but did not provide an answer about the cause of death.