Demonstration of myocardial infarction in putrefying bodies.

The demonstration of myocardial infarction becomes more difficult with increasing time after death. In morbid anatomy and forensic medicine in particular, it is not uncommon to encounter heavily putrefied bodies where the apparent cause of death is myocardial infarction. In these cases diagnosis is usually presumed because it cannot be proved. Carle noted fluorescence of necrotic fibres in histological sections of myocardial infarcts stained with haematoxylin and eosin.' Siegal and Fishbein2 and Al-Rufaie et al3 used this technique for the detection of early myocardial infarctions. We have used this technique to show established myocardial infarction in putrefying hearts.