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Book Review: Postmortem Change in the Rat: A Histologic Characterization

This book consists of 120 pages of text and 252 black and white photomicrographs describing and illustrating postmortem changes observed by light microscopy in various tissues of Sprague-Dawley rats necropsied after intervals of 0 to 16 hours after death. The text is organized into chapters by organ system, and the incidence of various postmortem changes observed microscopically is tabulated by length of interval from death to necropsy. In addition to detailed descriptions and adequate illustrations of the postmortem changes observed in various organs, the author adds considerably to the practical teaching value of the text by pointing out important differences in the rates of autolysis (and resultant microscopic appearance) of various epithelial subtypes within organs which may lead to misinterpretation by the inexperienced microscopist. Examples include the relatively early occurrence ofnuclear pyknosis, cytoplasmic vacuolation, and disruption of the distal convoluted tubular epithelium of the kidney compared with adjacent proximal convoluted tubules, creating the false impression of focal tubular necrosis. Similar variability in rates of autolysis are noted in ductal vs. acinar epithelium of the salivary glands, serous vs. mucous acinar epithelium of the submaxillary salivary glands, and epithelium of the zona glomerulosa vs. the other zones of the adrenal cortex. The author also points out the potential for misinterpretation of differences in amounts of blood remaining in the hepatic sinusoids of exsanguinated vs. unexsanguinated rats. The microscopic appearance of bronchioles and alveoli from lungs fixed by perfusion via the airways is compared with similar tissues from lungs fixed by immersion. The text provides concise information and is easily followed. Although the figures and text are adequately interfaced, more detailed descriptions in the figure legends would have made the information in the text more readily available. Most photomicrographs are of good quality. Loss of image sharpness and/or poor contrast in some figures may be due in part to the condition of the tissues being photographed. As the author points out in the introductory chapter of this book, the evolution of toxicologic pathology is requiring more thorough histopathologic evaluation of subtle changes in the tissues from experimental animals. Since postmortem changes are easily confused with subtle degenerative lesions, a detailed, illustrated study of postmortem changes is very valuable. This text represents a concerted effort to provide this information in a systematic, detailed manner and should be of value to any pathologist evaluating rodent tissues by light microscopy.