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Asthma Deaths
Phenomenology, Pathology, and Medicolegal Aspects
Michael Tsokos, MD
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ONTENTSINTRODUCTION
ACUTESEVEREASTHMAATTACKS: SUDDEN-ANDSLOW-ONSETASTHMA
PATHOLOGY OFASTHMABRONCHIALE
MEDICOLEGALASPECTS OFFATALASTHMA
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
No man is an island, entire of itself; …any man’s death diminishes me
—John Donne, 1624
S
UMMARYAsthma bronchiale is an inflammatory disease of the airways character- ized, in part, by reversible airflow obstruction, airway narrowing, and airway hyperresponsiveness. The prevalence of asthma is continuously rising in West- ern countries. Fatal asthma attacks may produce dubious death scenes: doors and/or windows might be wide open at the scene where the deceased is found.
When involvement of a third party can be excluded, this finding can be explained by the circumstance that the affected individual opened the respective
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From: Forensic Pathology Reviews, Vol. 4 Edited by: M. Tsokos © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ