Open AccessInfiltration and Fat Droplet Phagocytosis by Macrophages in the Alveoli may be the Most Likely Characteristics of Fat Embolism
Author(s) -
Bin Wang,
Zhang Fu,
Ning Xiao,
Xiaona Xu,
Qi Wang,
Xiaoxue Tan,
Tao Wang,
Huijun Wang,
Dong-Ri Li
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of forensic science and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.132
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2455-0094
pISSN - 2349-5014
DOI - 10.4103/2349-5014.191472
Subject(s) - fat embolism , autopsy , infiltration (hvac) , pathology , phagocytosis , lipid droplet , embolism , medicine , chemistry , immunology , surgery , materials science , composite material
We report a case of nontraumatic fat embolism syndrome with large amounts of macrophages with phagocytized fat droplets in the alveoli. A 46-year-old male presented with a glass-cut injury in his little finger. The wound was debrided and sutured at the hospital, but he was found dead 43 h after treatment. Autopsy results showed that the patient had steatohepatitis, accompanied by histological findings of fat droplets in the pulmonary capillaries. In the alveoli, we found a large number of macrophages with phagocytized fat droplets that showed stained. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of such a case, and the paper proposes that fat droplets phagocytized by a large number of macrophages may be a characteristic feature of fat embolism, which may be relevant to forensic pathology practice