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Updated: Aug 18, 2026
Quantitative Analysis of Chromatin Proteomes in Disease
Published on: December 28, 2012
Anitschkow nuclear changes in postmortem pericardial scrapings
1Division of Cytopathology, Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0548, USA.
Objective:
To document the presence of Anitschkow nuclear changes (ANC) in pericardial mesothelium at autopsy after the incidental finding of ANC in pericardial scrapings from a fatal case of overwhelming sepsis.
Study Design:
Fourteen, nonconsecutive autopsy cases were studied. Using the edge of a scalpel, the visceral pericardium from the left ventricle was scraped, and the sample was smeared onto glass slides, fixed in 95% ethanol, Papanicolaou stained and evaluated for the presence of ANC. Histologic correlation was also performed.
Results:
ANC were observed in pericardial mesothelial cells in 6 of 14 cases. Sepsis was the cause of death in three. Fatal cardiac arrhythmia, T-cell lymphoma and fulminant hepatic necrosis were found in the remaining cases. While readily seen in cytologic preparations, ANC were found focally in only one case examined histologically.
Conclusion:
Postmortem cytologic evaluation provides information relevant to the autopsy. In this study, ANC were very clearly seen in six pericardial scrapings. Clinical correlation supports the current theory that ANC represent a nonspecific reactive cell change.
