Abstract :
After death postmortem degradation of cells occur by means of autolysis. Various tissues and body fluids like heart, liver, kidney, uterus, labial mucosa, gingival epithelium, salivary glands, skin, and its appendages and body fluids such as blood cells and cerebrospinal fluid cells were studied to know the pattern of autolytic changes. The present study was undertaken to evaluate gross and histological changes of aorta in human and to identify different morphological changes that occur at different postmortem intervals. The study consisted of 10 male cadavers and their age ranged from 20 years to 76 years (mean age 43.4
years). The results of the present study show that the aorta undergoes progressive morphological changes in the postmortem period. These changes were observed on gross examination and at cellular level by light microscopy. The limitations of present study are 1) small sample size, 2) evaluation of aorta in single environment and 3) study of male sex only. Further large studies are required to establish whether the criteria of postmortem changes in aorta can reliably be used to estimate the death interval.
Keyword :
Aorta, Death, Histopathology, Postmortem interval.