Immunohistochemical investigations to demonstrate vital direct traumatic damage of skeletal muscle

Fechner, G.; Hauser, Ron; Sepulchre, M. A.; Brinkmann, B.

doi:10.1007/bf01369810

Cited by 27 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This finding is in agreement with results reported by Leger et al (1985Leger et al ( , 1990 and Fechner et al (1991). In pericaridal fluid, myosin heavy chain concentrations were significantly elevated in cases of sudden death due to heart-related causes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 95%

Usefulness of myosin in the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial damage

et al. 1995

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In some situations the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial infarction is made difficult by the brief course of the fatal episode or by interferences caused by autolysis. In such cases, biochemical indices may provide a useful adjunct to morphological studies. Myosin is the main component of the contractile apparatus of muscle cells, so its determination may well be useful to evaluate myocardial injury. The purpose of the present study was to establish the diagnostic efficacy of postmortem myosin heavy chain determinations using monoclonal antibodies and to compare this data with structural findings used to diagnose acute myocardial ischaemia. We studied 105 cadavers with a mean age of 61.63 +/- 2.21 years. Cases were allocated to 1 of 7 diagnostic groups depending on the probable intensity of myocardial damage and cause of death. The highest serum and pericardial fluid values of myosin heavy chains were seen in subjects who showed morphological evidence of myocardial ischaemia. Mean pericardial fluid/serum ratios differed significantly between subjects with and without observable signs of heart damage.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 95%

Usefulness of myosin in the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial damage

et al. 1995

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“…Besides the investigation of the macroscopic appearance and topographical distribution of these hemorrhages, the aim of the present study was to classify histomorphological changes of muscle fibers [4,18] and thereby draw conclusions concerning a potential vital origin: it is a well known fact that the macroscopical differentiation between postmortal and vital hemorrhages is uncertain [4,6,13,18,19]. Histological examination revealed premortal (vital/agonal) muscle fiber alterations in 7 (50 %) out of 14 hemorrhage-positive cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macromorphology and histology of intramuscular hemorrhages in cases of drowning

Püschel

Schulz

Darrmann

et al. 1999

International Journal of Legal Medicine

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In a prospective autopsy series of 39 cases of fatal drowning, the detailed dissection of the skeletal muscles of the neck, anterior/posterior trunk and the upper extremities in layers revealed intramuscular hemorrhages of different size and shape in 20 cases (51.3%). Light microscopy examination showed a premortal (vital/agonal) type of muscular alteration in 7 (50%) out of 14 macroscopical hemorrhage-positive cases. These hemorrhages and histological muscle alterations are attributed to agonal convulsions, hypercontraction and overexertion of the affected muscle groups. As long as no cutaneous or subcutaneous hematomas above the hemorrhages can be found, these autopsy findings (with special reference to histology) can serve as an additional criterion concerning the differentiation of drowning and another cause of death.

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“…Tissue sections in which the primary antibodies were replaced by phosphate-buffered saline or non-immune serum (rabbit or mouse) were used as negative controls. A homogeneous pale red staining of myoglobin in uninjured muscles and the sarcoplasmic depletion of this protein in muscle fibres that were damaged in the ante-mortem period (demonstrable until 72 hours post mortem) is expected; whereas the intracellular accumulation of fibrinogen is exclusively observed in vital damaged muscle fibres, although immunohistochemical detection of fibrinogen is unreliable in samples with signs of advanced autolysis [27], [28]. The slow MHC antibody recognises type I fibres (slow-twitch fibres) and the fast MHC antibody recognises type IIa, IIb, and IId (IIx) fibres (fast-twitch fibres) [10], which allowed the determination of what type of fibre was most affected in each case.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Histopathological Muscle Findings May Be Essential for a Definitive Diagnosis of Suspected Sharp Trauma Associated with Ship Strikes in Stranded Cetaceans

et al. 2014

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Ship strikes are a major issue for the conservation of may cetacean species. Certain gross and microscopic criteria have been previously reported for establishing a diagnosis of death due to ship strikes in these animals. However, some ship-strike injuries may be masked by advanced carcass decomposition and may be undetectable due to restricted access to the animals. In this report we describe histopathological muscular findings in 13 cetaceans with sharp trauma from ship strikes as the cause of death. Skeletal muscle samples were taken from the incision site and from the main locomotor muscle, the longissimus dorsi, in areas not directly affected by the sharp injury. The microscopic findings in tissues from both sites mainly consisted of haemorrhages; oedema; flocculent, granular or/and hyalinised segmentary degeneration; contraction band necrosis; and discoid degeneration or fragmentation of myofibres. We propose that skeletal muscle histopathology provides evidence of ante-mortem injuries even if the sample was taken elsewhere in the carcass and not only within or adjacent to the sharp trauma site and despite the advanced decomposition of some of the carcasses. This method helps to establish the diagnosis of ship strike as the cause of death.

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Immunohistochemical investigations to demonstrate vital direct traumatic damage of skeletal muscle

Cited by 27 publications

References 14 publications

Usefulness of myosin in the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial damage

Usefulness of myosin in the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial damage

Macromorphology and histology of intramuscular hemorrhages in cases of drowning

Histopathological Muscle Findings May Be Essential for a Definitive Diagnosis of Suspected Sharp Trauma Associated with Ship Strikes in Stranded Cetaceans

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