Citation

Murty OP, Mun K, Gopinath N, Wong KT. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 2008; 29(4): 364-367.

Affiliation

From the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PAF.0b013e3181859ff7

PMID

19259028

Abstract

Every body has to eat to survive but it becomes a matter of great concern, when the life provider food becomes an asphyxiating agent. In this case, a 60-year-old woman choked herself while swallowing biscuits. On autopsy examination, biscuits were found lodged in larygo-pharynx. Brain showed marked dystrophy and loosened lusterless white matter. On histopathologic examination, brain tissue had numerous eosinophilic globules representing astrocytic processes called "Rosenthal fibers"; hence, it was diagnosed as a case of Alexander dystrophy. It is a disease of white matter, where there is a progressive degeneration of the white matter of the brain because of imperfect growth or development of the myelin sheath. The histopathology of brain showed Rosenthal fibers in abundance. This is one of the rarest disease in which choking can occur because of lack of nervous and muscular coordination and weakness. Its specific relation to choking is documented in this report.

Language: en