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. 2023 Jul;137(4):1089-1092.
doi: 10.1007/s00414-023-02998-z. Epub 2023 Apr 26.

Can the size of the contact area body-ground influence the presence of acute pulmonary emphysema in cases of incomplete hanging?

C Castiglioni  1 , F Lanzillotta  2 , T Fracasso  3
Affiliations

Can the size of the contact area body-ground influence the presence of acute pulmonary emphysema in cases of incomplete hanging?

C Castiglioni et al. Int J Legal Med. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

In a recently published study, we showed that acute pulmonary emphysema (APE) was present in cases of death by incomplete hanging and absent in cases of complete hanging. This result suggested a possible role of the hanging position on the respiratory distress of these victims. To further investigate this hypothesis, in the present study, we compared cases of incomplete hanging with a small contact area between body and ground (group A) to cases of incomplete hanging with a large contact area (group B). As positive and negative control group, we investigated cases of freshwater drowning (group C) and acute external bleeding (group D) respectively. Pulmonary samples were histologically examined, and the mean alveolar area (MAA) for each group was measured by digital morphometric analysis. MAA was 23,485 μm2 for group A and 31,426 μm2 for group B (p < 0.05). MAA of group B was similar to MAA of positive control group (33,135 μm2) and MAA of group A was similar to MAA of negative control group (21,991 μm2). These results seem to confirm our hypothesis and suggest that the size of the contact area between body and ground influences the presence of APE. Furthermore, the present study showed that APE can be proposed as a vitality sign in incomplete hanging, but only in cases with a large contact area between body and ground.

Keywords: Acute pulmonary emphysema; Forensic histopathology; Incomplete hanging; Morphometric digital analysis; Sign of vitality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean alveolar area of each group: between the groups A and B of incomplete hanging there is a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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