[Chromolipid storage in alveolar macrophages: a distinctive mark for cigarette smokers]

Histological and cytological examinations of 188 autopsies--113 smokers and 75 non-smokers--established that cigarette smoke causes increase and multiplication of alveolar macrophages which contain inclusions of ceroid-like pigment. Acute death by fire, delayed asphyxia and putrefaction have no influence on the formation of these sudanophilic inclusions. The pigment is resistant to decomposition and lipid-solvents. It is possible to identify cigarette-smokers--even months after burial--by means of paraffin sections of lung tissue and proceeding with fat--staining methods.