Medico-legal studies on the fetus and infant: With special references to histological characteristics of the lungs of liveborn and stillborn infants

Abstract

The lungs of 77 infants who were known to be either liveborn or stillborn were histologically observed in order to find morphological characteristics of the lung in both instances. The results of the observation suggest that the expansion of the air-passage as a whole may or may not be the evidence of livebirth. However, localized expansion of the air-passage in the respiratory bronchioli and alveolar ducts was found exclusively in the liveborn infants. The hyaline membrane was also visible only in the liveborn infants. © 1965, Tohoku University Medical Press. All rights reserved.