title: Advantage of affinity histochemistry combined with histology to investigate death causes: indications from sample cases.
abstract: Mast cell histochemistry has been proposed in addition to classic histological methods to estimate the course of traumatic events before and after death. We have addressed the utility of this approach on nine victims of different types of trauma. Sections of wounded skin were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and with fluorescent avidin to tag mast cells. Mast cell numbers were evaluated by both direct and digitalized counts. Intact skin was used as control. The results on mast cells implemented the findings upon hematoxylin and eosin stain and helped to put the wounds and death in chronological sequence. Digitalized morphometry allowed to reduce intra- and inter-observer variation. We conclude that combined histological and histochemical analyses can be of practical use in forensic pathology, that a preliminary setting of the reference values is needed for each laboratory, and that image analysis can be of help for the quantification of the results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Histology and Forensic Medicine, Section E Allara, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 University of Florence, Italy. stefano.bacci@unifi.it
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bacci
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: DeFraia
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romagnoli
authors.forename: Aurelio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002452:Cell Count; D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006416:Hematoxylin; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D008853:Microscopy; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D012016:Reference Values; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology*; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D006416:Hematoxylin