Elsevier

Forensic Science International

Volume 43, Issue 1, September 1989, Pages 1-3, 5-7
Forensic Science International

Differential diagnosis SIDS/non-SIDS on the basis of histological findings of petechial thymus hemorrhages

https://doi.org/10.1016/0379-0738(89)90115-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Petechial thymus hemorrhages are found most frequently in SIDS (87%), and very much more rarely in fetuses after abortion and stillbirths (55%) as well as in perinatal deaths (40%). In these groups, there was a uniform histological bleeding pattern with emphasis on the cortical zone. In non-SIDS deaths of natural causes or extrinsic suffocation in babies and infants, it could be demonstrated in 39%. In extrinsic suffocation, the thymus hemorrhages were mostly less pronounced in quantitative terms than in SIDS. In non-SIDS (without extrinsic suffocation), a hemorrhage pattern different from SIDS could be detected with hemorrhagias of different sizes and irregularly distributed over the cortex and medulla.

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