Presentation of the change in the number of hippocampal neurons by stereological method in surviving cases of mechanical asphyxia: An experimental rat study

Abstract

Asphyxia is the most common death cause in Forensic Medicine. Strangulations do not always result in death. Cases recovering from asphyxia have many disturbances in different organs because of ischemia. In this study, using stereological methods, after asphyxia was performed by strangulation, the mean number of pyramidal neurons in hippocampus was aimed to evaluate. Rats are divided into two groups. The first one was the control group and the other one was asphyxiated by strangulation. The brains of strangulated group rats were extracted after seven days. Sections were taken by cryostat with the method of "Systematic Randomised Sample Strategy" and stained with hematoxylen-eosin. In these sections, total pyramidal neuronal numbers in hippocampus were determined by the "Optical Fractioning Method". In our study, the mean cell number of asphyxiated group (158985,2±17439,8) was significantly less in the control group (265689,4±39009,5) (p=0.009). In conclusion, strangulation-induced asphyxia is resulted in hippocampal neuronal lost. © 2012 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine.