J Korean Med Sci.  2008 Dec;23(6):1020-1026. 10.3346/jkms.2008.23.6.1020.

The Significance of Hemosiderin Deposition in the Lungs and Organs of the Mononucleated Macrophage Resorption System in Infants and Children

• Turkmen N
• Eren B
• Fedakar R
• Akgoz S

• KMID: 1107528
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2008.23.6.1020

Abstract

Hemosiderin deposition is not often recognized on routine examination with hematoxylin and eosin staining; however, iron stains may be helpful in the evaluation of hemosiderin deposition in infant autopsies. This report describes the data obtained from autopsy of 86 infants and children whose deaths were investigated at the Forensic Medicine Council Bursa Morgue Department from January 2000 to January 2003. A histochemical technique was used to identify hemosiderin in lung, liver and spleen specimens, which was correlated with other descriptive variables such as the reported cause of death, postmortem interval, trauma history, gender, and age. There was a weakly positive but significant correlation between lung and liver hemosiderin scores (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, rho=0.348, p=0.001); i.e., given an increase in lung hemosiderin scores, an increase in liver hemosiderin scores was also observed. Similarly, a marked positive correlation between spleen and liver hemosiderin scores (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, rho=0.335, p=0.002) was observed. The probability of spleen hemosiderin-positive cases belonging to the age group under 6 months was found to be 4.3 times greater than those who were hemosiderin-negative (95% confidence interval, 1.6-11.8). After the major differential diagnoses were ruled out, this study demonstrated, that depending on the statistically assessed morphometric grounds, the presence of hemosiderin deposits in the liver and spleen were significantly higher in the age group under 6 months.

Keyword

Hemosiderin Deposition; Lung; Liver; Spleen; Forensic Autopsy

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Age Factors
Cause of Death
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
*Forensic Pathology
Hemosiderin/*metabolism
Humans
Infant
Liver/pathology
Lung/*pathology
Macrophages/*pathology
Male
Spleen/pathology

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Lung iron staining was predominantly found within macrophages. Perls's stain, 40× magnification.

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  Fig. 2 Liver and spleen hemosiderin deposits in the under 6 months and older than 6 months of age groups.

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  Fig. 3 Hemosiderin deposits in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells. Perls's stain, 200× magnification.

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  Fig. 4 Hemosiderin deposits in the spleen red pulp. Perls's stain, 200× magnification.

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