Citation

Bacci S, Defraia B, Romagnoli P, Bonelli A. J. Forensic Sci. 2011; 56(6): 1620-1625.

Affiliation

Department of Anatomy, Histology and Forensic Medicine, Section "E. Allara", Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139, University of Florence, Italy. Department of Anatomy, Histology and Forensic Medicine, Section of Forensic Medicine, Viale Morgagni 85, 50134, University of Florence, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01866.x

PMID

21827462

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.

Language: en