凍死の一剖検例

In 30th April, 72-years-old male was found dead in the grass near a farm road in TokushimaCity. An autopsy revealed that he was very thin, and rectal temperature,22℃, was relativelow against other postmortem changes. Furthermore, the left cardiac blood was brightpink, so there was markedly different between the color of right and left cardiac blood. Thelungs were collapse. From those autopsy findings, his cause of death was diagnosed the fatalhypothermia. Besides cause of death, autopsy also revealed ascites and liver tumor.Histopathologically, adenocarcinoma was observed in liver, pancreas and kidney. His heartwas slackened. Myocardial fibers were thin and intricate, and heart failure cells were observedin lungs, histopathologically. He had been operated stomach cancer, so it seems thatthe cancer has spread to liver and other organs. Those findings suggested that he failed intocachexia with chronic heart failure and metastasis carcinoma. The cachexia strongly contributedhis cause of death, fatal hypothermia.