[Ultrastructure of intravital, postmortem and autolysed fibrin]

Investigations on animal experimental and human tissue material (skin, musculature, liver) with the scanning electron microscope are reported. These studies were carried out to clarify open questions on extravascular fibrin structures after blunt and sharp traumatization of vital and postmortem nature. The network formation which was already characterized earlier as typically vital and the irregular structure of postmortem coagula could be demonstrated even with modification of the traumatization, especially in tissue hematomas. Experimental investigations on autolysis revealed an exceedingly good preservation of the structure of vital coagulum material with massive damage and granular decomposition of fibrin fiber structures produced postmortem. The structural differences in the mode of interlinking of the fibrin was shown up especially clearly by the autolysis, which suggests an application as preparation technique for the question specified. Special modifications of the preparation technique (fixation according to Karnovsky, critical-point drying) did not provide such substantial advantages for routine investigations that they might be generally recommended.