Pattern of histopathological lesions in lung autopsy

Background: A large number of pathologic conditions involve the lung parenchyma like inflammatory, neoplastic and others. The lungs are also involved in almost all terminal events of cardiovascular disease. Autopsy is an important and most useful way to find out the condition of internal organs and to evaluate any localized lesions or systemic disease and hence determine cause of death. Aims and objectives of study are to identify the histopathological spectrum of lung disease. To find out frequency of various lung pathologies in respect to age and sex. Methods: This study was retrospective and done on 649 cases of medico legal autopsies. The tissue specimens were fixed and processed. Routine paraffin sectioning was done followed by Hematoxylene and eosin (H and E) staining. Special stains were done whenever required. Relevant clinical and postmortem findings, gross and microscopic examination findings were recorded. Results: After thorough histopathological examinations, of total 649 cases, various pulmonary lesions were identified in 348(53.6%) cases while in 301(46.4%) cases no significant pathology was seen. Most commonly affected age group was 30-49 years 43.1% followed by age group of >60years 17.8%. Majority of diseased were male 285 (81.9%). Most common lung pathology found was Edema and congestion in 93 cases (26.72%), chronic venous congestion in 92 cases (26.44%) pneumonia in 65 cases (18.68%) followed by Tuberculosis/Tuberculous pneumonia in 29 cases (8.3%). Conclusions: In our population, the present study reveals that infectious disease are still the most common cause of mortality, despite recent advances in diagnostic technology, the autopsy has remained an important complementary tool for identifying and understanding pathology of disease.