Abstract :
Background: Regardless of the suspected cause of death, the post-mortem examination should always be done where deaths (related to sudden and unexpected demise), come under the jurisdiction to determine the cause and manner of the death. Various incidental findings are identified during microscopic examination which may or may not be the contributing factor for cause of death. This findings may have been a great learning tool for pathologists. So, an autopsy study of heart was conducted to find out the various histopathological changes.
Aims: To study the spectrum of histomorphological changes in heart in autopsies.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, North Bengal medical college, West Bengal for a period of 2 years from August 2021 to August 2023. Total 143 autopsy specimen was received during this period, specimen of heart received were 139, 06 were autolysed. So 133 specimens of heart were examined macroscopically and microscopically to see the different histopathological findings.
Result: In our study most of the heart received in the age group of 21 -30 yrs. 72.1% cases showed fatty tissue interposition, 59.4% showed myocardial hypertrophy, 39.8% showed myocyte fibrosis, 31.57% showed inflammatory infiltration within myocyte, 22.5% showed atherosclerosis and thrombus within coronary vessels found in 6.7%.
Conclusion: The most common finding in our study is fatty tissue interposition within myocyte which differs from previous studies which showed atherosclerosis as the most common findings.
Keyword :
Autopsy, Heart, Histomorphology