[Toxic alcohol dysmyelopoiesis--bone marrow histology studies of a forensic medicine autopsy sample].

Abstract

Histological evaluation of bone marrow in 30 autopsy cases with a history of chronic alcohol consumption revealed characteristic changes concerning the medullary iron distribution and, first and foremost, the erythropoiesis, which was found to be macroblastic. These autoptic findings reflected the pattern of alcoholic dyshematopoiesis resulting from a toxic effect of alcohol on the bone marrow, well-known from biopsies and aspirates of alcohol-dependent patients and combined with hemochromatosis-associated plasma cell iron in the marrow and elevation of median corpuscular volume of erythrocytes in the peripheral blood. Therefore, this stereotyped morphological findings in the bone marrow of autopsy cases extend the well-known scope of alcohol-induced pathological organ changes.