Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Histochemical Staining Techniques for Steatosis Detection in Liver Tissue and Application in Forensic Autopsy: A Case Study

Abstract

Oil Red O (ORO) stain is lipophilic for stain fat and lipid components, it is one of the chemical reagents which have the potential to be utilized for forensic medicine to identify asphyxia deaths from pulmonary emboli, that are frequently occurred following an accident or sudden death. Consequently, it can increase forensic pathologists' confidence and lower the cost of delivering ORO stains to other units. Therefore, the authors were interested in comparing the effectiveness of commercial ORO-C and homemade ORO-HM in steatosis samples. Tissue samples were collected and divided into two groups namely with fixative and without any preservative.Assessment of the persistence efficiency of ORO-HM at different storage periods was performed by four experts with a blind testing method. The results were compared by assessing the efficiency of two histochemical stains using the SPSS software. The results showed that ORO-HM in both fresh and formalin-fixed tissues represented decent efficiency in fatty changed detection which was in line with the results from ORO-C. However, the ORO-HM data in formalin fixative tissues was clearer than fresh tissue (p < 0.05). This study presents that the ORO-HM method expresses promising results, that is useful for the diagnosis of steatosis as same as ORC-C.Furthermore, it should be performed in slides of no longer than 72 h storage time because the efficiency of the dye would deteriorate significantly. In conclusion, ORO-HM stain in this study provided compatible results with PRC-C and could be utilized in forensic medicine