Pulmonary Embolism: an Autopsy Study

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is associated to high mortality rate worldwide. However, the diagnosis of PE often results inaccurate. Many cases of PE are incorrectly diagnosed or missed and they are often associated to sudden unexpected death (SUD). In forensic practice, it is important to establish the time of thrombus formation in order to determine the precise moment of death. The autopsy remains the gold standard method for the identification of death cause allowing the determination of discrepancies between clinical and autopsy diagnoses. The aim of our study will be to verify the morphological and histological criteria of fatal cases of PE and evaluate the dating of thrombus formation considering 5 ranges of time. METHODS: Pulmonary vessels sections will be collected from January 2010 to December 2017. Sections of thrombus sampling will be stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The content of infiltrated cells, fibroblasts and collagen fibers will be scored using a semi-quantitative three-point scale of range values. Hypothesis: After a macroscopic observation and a good sampling traditional histology, it will be important to identify the time of thrombus formation. We will identify histologically a range of time in the physiopathology of the thrombus (early, recent, recent-medium, medium, old), allowing to determine the dating of thrombus formation and the exact time of death.