Fat necrosis in surveillance biopsies of heart transplants.

Fat necrosis was observed in surveillance biopsies of five patients following heart transplant. This reaction is poorly documented in the literature, but in personal communication, some pathologists working in the field have had experience with it. Four of the cases developed two to six days after transplantation, but in the fifth case, fat necrosis developed ten months after transplantation.

Postmortem identification by means of a recovered intraocular lens.

Formal legal identification of the decomposed remains of an edentulous woman was facilitated by the postmortem recovery of an intraocular lens implant. The dimensions and dioptric power of this prosthetic lens were identical with those recorded by her ophthalmologist at the time of cataract surgery 2 years previously. On the basis of this and other circumstantial evidence, legal identification was accepted by the Coroner.

Pathology review of sudden and unexpected death in aboriginal and non-aboriginal infants.

Previous research showed that the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) rate for Aboriginal infants significantly increased during the 1980s in Western Australia (WA) and raised the possibility of a diagnostic transfer of Aboriginal infant deaths from other causes to SIDS over this period. Here, therefore we review the pathology of SIDS and other sudden and unexpected deaths in infancy (SUDI) for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal infants in WA between 1980 and 1988. The aim was to investigate whether there had been differences in the diagnosis and/or classification of SIDS according to whether the infants were Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal.

Death by hanging in Western Australia.

We present a review of the circumstances and medical findings of 280 fatalities due to hanging in Western Australia (WA) during the 5 yr period 1988-1992. Two hundred and forty one (241) of the cases were examined prospectively; the completed Coroner's files of a further 39 cases, from rural WA, were examined retrospectively. Most of the 280 deaths were in males (88%), and most were in the age range of 15-35 yrs (56%).

Autoerotic deaths: four cases.

We describe the circumstances and post mortem medical findings of 4 unusual fatalities where death occurred during autoerotic practice. Three cases occurred in young to middle-aged men--hanging, electrocution and inhalation of a zucchini. The manner of death in each was accidental.