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Updated: Jul 16, 2025
Echocardiographic and Histological Examination of Cardiac Morphology in the Mouse
Published on: October 26, 2017
Heart weight must not be measured before dissection during autopsies
Larissa Lohner1, Christoph Sinning2, Anna Isabella Suling3
1Institute of Legal Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. l.lohner@uke.de.
Insights
Accurate heart weight measurement at autopsy is crucial for diagnosing cardiac pathology. This study found that dissecting, rinsing, and drying the heart before weighing significantly reduces its recorded weight.
Area of Science:
- Forensic Pathology
- Cardiovascular Pathology
Background:
- Heart weight is a critical parameter for assessing cardiac pathology during autopsies.
- Current autopsy procedures lack a standardized method for accurate heart weight measurement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish a standardized protocol for accurate heart weight measurement at autopsy.
- To quantify the impact of different dissection and preparation methods on heart weight.
Main Methods:
- The study involved weighing the hearts of 58 deceased individuals using three distinct methods: (a) after dissection from the pericardial sac, (b) after dissection with manual blood/clot removal (short-axis or inflow-outflow), and (c) after rinsing and drying.
- Comparison of heart weights obtained through these different preparation techniques.
Main Results:
- Dissection using the inflow-outflow method resulted in a 7.8% lower heart weight, while the short-axis method yielded an 11.6% reduction compared to pre-dissection weights.
- Further reduction of 2.9% to 5% was observed after rinsing and drying the heart post-dissection.
Conclusions:
- A standardized method for heart weight determination at autopsy is essential for accurate cardiac pathology assessment.
- The recommended procedure involves dissecting the heart, meticulously removing blood and clots, rinsing with water, and drying thoroughly before weighing.
Abstract:
During autopsies, weighing the heart is a standard procedure. In addition to myocardial pathologies, heart size, and ventricular wall thickness, heart weight is a common parameter to describe cardiac pathology and should be recorded as accurately as possible. To date, there exists no standard for recording heart weight at autopsy, although some authors recommend weighing the heart after dissection and removal of blood and blood clots. In the study presented, the hearts of 58 decedents were weighed after being dissected out of the pericardial sac (a), after dissection using the short-axis or inflow-outflow method with manual removal of blood and blood clots (b), and after rinsing and drying (c). Depending on the dissection method, the heart weight was 7.8% lower for the inflow-outflow method and 11.6% lower for the short-axis method after dissection compared to before and correspondingly 2.9% to 5% lower again after rinsing and drying respectively. Accordingly, the heart should be dissected, blood and blood clots removed, rinsed with water, and dried with a surgical towel after dissection, before weighing.
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