Today's quick lesson: Tardieu Spots
Asphyxial petechial haemorrhages do occur on the serosal surfaces of internal organs eg.heart as shown in the pictures. They were first described by Tardieu in the 19th century and were named after him as tardieu spots. Tardieu spots were considered at that time and for a long period after as pathognomonic signs of asphyxial deaths.
Such petechial haemorrhages do occur in deaths related to infections, blood coagulopathy disorders and micro emboli. It can also occur due to rupture of engorged capillaries in the dependent parts. Tardieu spots can also be noticed in some cases of natural deaths, therefore, the confusing term of "suffocation haemorrages" should be avoided.
Reference:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21254701
http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/forensicspostmortem.html
Attention!! the link above contains photos that some viewers may find disturbing!
#tardieuspots #pathology #forensics
I call this "the Corina Marinescu diet". It will be a few days before I am able to eat again 😵
ReplyDeleteVery cool
ReplyDeleteHuh, so why does asphyxiation cause hemorrhages? Cell lysis from low O2 pressure? but macro enough that it's visible?
ReplyDelete