Int J Leg Med (1994) 106:258-261 International Journal of Legal Medicine © Springer-Verlag 1994 Pulmonary giant cells and traumatic asphyxia

Summary, A morphometrical nalysis was performed to elucidate the significance of pulmonary polynuclear giant cells as a histological sign of asphyxiation. A total of 13 cases of homicidal strangulation of throttling, 8 cases of traumatic asphyxia due to chest compression and 10 con-trol cases (cause of death: severe head injury, no signs of aspiration or other elevant pulmonary alterations, smok-ers and non-smokers) were investigated. The number of alveolar macrophages containing 1 or 2 nuclei and of polynuclear giant cells per microscopic field (0.000025 cm 2) was estimated and a statistical evaluation was car-ried out. A considerable individual variation was ob-served in all groups with a tendency to higher numbers of cells in cases of smokers or advanced individual age. However, no significant differences were detectable in the content of alveolar macrophages and in particular of polynuclear giant cells between the asphyxiated individu-als and the controls. Since polynuclear giant cells oc-curred in similar amounts in healthy, functionally normal lungs of non-asphyxiated in ividuals, the detection of such cells cannot be regarded as a reliable indicator for as-phyxiation