Fatal poisoning by butane sniffing: A forensic analysis and immunohistochemical detection of myocardial hypoxic damage

The study herein described was conducted including all cases of fatal acute intoxication of butane gas examined from 2007 to 2015 at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the University of Genoa. In the absence of overt and specific macroscopic and histological findings indicating cause and pathological mechanism of death, we aimed to assess whether recent cardiac lesions were detectable by way of immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis. Specifically, fibronectin and troponin C expression in myocardial tissues were investigated in deaths from acute butane-gas poisoning so as to better define the underlying pathological mechanisms. IHC findings were indicative of hypoxic cardiac damage. In all cases, positivity to fibronectin and mildly to moderately reduced troponin C expression in cardiac muscle cells were immunohistochemically ascertained.