Heart
Author:
Mikael Häggström [note 1]
Contents
Comprehensiveness
On this resource, the following formatting is used for comprehensiveness:
- Minimal depth
- (Moderate depth)
- ((Comprehensive))
Fixation
Presentations
Gross processing
Heart specimens are generally not inked.
Basic microscopic screening
Generally check for signs of myocardial infarction. Further information: Autopsy of myocardial infarction
(For myocardial biopsies:
- Evaluate specimen adequacy. An adequate amount of tissue is generally 4 fragments (or 3 if each fragment is high quality).
- Evaluate on H&E, trichome stain (to better evaluate any fibrosis) and Congo red (to exclude any amyloid).)
Common findings
Myocardial lipofuscin reflects normal ageing rather than any cardiac pathology,[1] and does not need mentioning in the elderly.
Ruptured intercalated discs. Further information: Ruptured intercalated discs
Fibrosis. Further information: Myocardial fibrosis
Myocardial hypertrophy (in right image, compared to normal at left).
Rectangular "Boxcar" nuclei: Look for myocardial hypertrophy, especially when enlarged. Otherwise, ruptured intercalated discs can cause square shaped nuclei.
.jpg)
Other conditions to look for
Giant-cell myocarditis, with multinucleated giant cells.
Lymphocytic myocarditis (white arrow points to a lymphocyte), commonly showing myocyte necrosis (black arrow), seen as hypereosinophilic cytoplasm with loss of striations.
Notes
- ↑ For a full list of contributors, see article history. Creators of images are attributed at the image description pages, seen by clicking on the images. See Patholines:Authorship for details.
Main page
References
Image sources
