Abstract
The authors used the immunohistochemical reaction with antibodies against myoglobin of the heart muscle in three groups of suddenly deceased subjects with a macroscopically apparent myocardial infarction and revealed focal disappearance of myoglobin in 90%. In the second group of sudden deaths with advanced atherosclerosis without a macroscopically apparent infarction, without a macroenzymatic reaction and without any positive histological finding a disseminated reduction up to complete disappearance of myoglobin from cardiac muscle fibres was observed in 70%.
In the third control group of subjects who died from a violent death without advanced coronary atherosclerosis a disseminated reduction or disappearance of myoglobin was recorded only in 26%, and this was the case where death was preceded by massive suffocation. The immunochemical method for detection of myoglobin is very sensitive.
Disappearance or reduction of myoglobin in myocardial muscle fibres occurs not only in ischaemic but also in hypoxic conditions.