Morphologic Markers of Acute and Chronic Stress in Child Abuse

To elucidate pathologic markers of acute and chronic stress found but rarely reported in chronic child abuse.

Autopsies of 3 cases of fatal child abuse with well-documented chronic maltreatment are reported, with an emphasis on the nontraumatic findings of acute and chronic stress.

Besides the overwhelming physical injuries, all 3 children and 1 additional case obtained for consultation had telogen effluvium, a form of alopecia well known to be associated with stress in adults and some children but never reported in chronic abuse. All 3 had the microscopic findings of markedly involuted thymus, a well-known marker of physiologic stress in children but only occasionally referred to in child abuse. All 3 also had microscopic findings of myocardial necrosis associated with supraphysiologic levels of catecholamine, a well-documented finding associated with stress but rarely reported in fatalities associated with child abuse. Two of the 3 children also had Anitschkow-like nuclear changes in cardiac tissue, markers associated with prior, nonischemic myocardial pathologies that may be associated with prior episodes of acute stress.

Pathologists are urged to explore these markers as supportive evidence in their own investigations of possible child abuse fatalities, especially when associated with stress.