Petechial hemorrhage of the conjunctiva and histological findings of the lung and pancreas in infantile asphyxia--evaluation of 85 cases.

Eighty-five cases of infantile asphyxia were examined in relation to the degree of conjunctivae petechial hemorrhages and histological and immunohistochemical findings of the lungs and the pancreas. In very young cases, even in the strangulation cases, conjunctivae petechial hemorrhages were unremarkable and sometimes absent. The lungs showed remarkable to moderate congestion, while the pancreas showed only slight to moderate edema and cell infiltrations. Many pancreata of cases of accidental and homicidal asphyxia had hyperplasia and nesidioblastosis of islet cells. In adult asphyxia cases, remarkable congestion has been the main finding in the lungs and the pancreas. This study shows many similarities between the findings in homicidal suffocation and in genuinely accidental suffocation, both in inspection and on histological examination. So, we here, stressed on the necessity of legal necropsy for various infantile asphyxia cases, in the speculation of the cause of death, in order to not only study infantile sudden death cause but also not to mis-diagnose genuine accidental asphyxia cases or homicidal cases using suffocation for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).