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. 2023 Nov;137(6):1751-1755.
doi: 10.1007/s00414-023-03089-9. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Heart weight must not be measured before dissection during autopsies

Larissa Lohner  1 , Christoph Sinning  2 , Anna Isabella Suling  3 , Rexson Tse  4   5 , Jack Garland  5 , Benjamin Ondruschka  6
Affiliations

Heart weight must not be measured before dissection during autopsies

Larissa Lohner et al. Int J Legal Med. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

During autopsies, weighing the heart is a standard procedure. In addition to myocardial pathologies, heart size, and ventricular wall thickness, heart weight is a common parameter to describe cardiac pathology and should be recorded as accurately as possible. To date, there exists no standard for recording heart weight at autopsy, although some authors recommend weighing the heart after dissection and removal of blood and blood clots. In the study presented, the hearts of 58 decedents were weighed after being dissected out of the pericardial sac (a), after dissection using the short-axis or inflow-outflow method with manual removal of blood and blood clots (b), and after rinsing and drying (c). Depending on the dissection method, the heart weight was 7.8% lower for the inflow-outflow method and 11.6% lower for the short-axis method after dissection compared to before and correspondingly 2.9% to 5% lower again after rinsing and drying respectively. Accordingly, the heart should be dissected, blood and blood clots removed, rinsed with water, and dried with a surgical towel after dissection, before weighing.

Keywords: Cardiac hypertrophy; Cardiomegaly; Forensic autopsy; Heart weight; Sudden cardiac death.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Changes in heart weight by dissection method. (a) After dissecting the heart out of the pericardial sac, (b) after complete dissection using the inflow-outflow or the short-axis method with manual removal of blood and blood clots, (c) after rinsing and drying
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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