| A Study of Weight Ratio of Lung to the Spleen for the Diagnostic Index of Drowning. |
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Ju Bin Oh, Eun Jeung Cha, Jeong Woo Park, Ik Jo Chung, Youn Shin Kim, Han Young Lee, Ho Lee |
1Department of Forensic Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Korea. foremed@chonbuk.ac.kr
2Department of Pathology, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Korea.
3Department of Forensic Medicine, National Institute of Scientific Investigation, Korea. |
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| Abstract |
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The diagnosis of drowning is one of the most difficult in forensic pathology. One of the most common autopsy findings in drowning cases is a heavy, edematous lung as the result of water that is aspirated into the lungs before death. There are several controversial findings and arguments about the lung weight as a marker of drowning. The aim of the present study is to examine the difference in the lungs to the spleen weight ratio between seawater and freshwater drowning, compared with asphyxiation and acute cardiac death. This study compared the weight ratio of the lungs to the spleen for 29 cases of drowning (24 males, 5 females), 30 cases of mechanical asphyxiation (16 males, 14 females), and 37 cases of acute cardiac death (30 males, 7 females). This study presented significant differences in the lungs to the spleen weight ratio between drowning and the other causes of death . Therefore, these findings suggest that the ratio may be a useful index for accurate diagnosis of death by drowning. |
| Key Words:
Drowning, Edematous lung, Spleen |
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