Key result
Cold postmortem cardiac storage drives progressive myocardial autolytic ultrastructural changes over 48 hours.
Why the study?
It is important to learn the time course of postmortem alterations in the myocardium due to autolysis to distinguish them from antemortem disease changes.
This study details the time course of postmortem autolytic changes in rat myocardium, aiding in distinguishing them from antemortem disease.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Postmortem EM changes in rat hearts alert pathologists to time-dependent artifacts; leaves open translation to human autopsy interpretation.
The hearts of 5 normal adult rats were studied histologically and electron microscopically to learn the structural changes that develop postmortem. The hearts were wrapped and stored at 4 °C and sections collected for study immediately after death and at 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 28, 32 and 48 h thereafter. The most pronounced changes were noted on electron microscopy and are described and illustrated in detail. It is possible, therefore, and important to learn the time course of the postmortem alterations in the myocardium due to autolysis so that these changes can be distinguished from changes due to antemortem disease.
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Burch et al. (2008) studied Postmortem changes in the myocardium (n=5). Postmortem storage at 4 °C vs. Immediately after death was evaluated on Structural changes in the myocardium (histological and electron microscopic). Postmortem storage of rat hearts at 4 °C resulted in pronounced structural changes on electron microscopy over 48 hours, highlighting the time course of autolysis.
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