Forensic Evaluation of Mechanical Asphyxia: Histological and Immunohistochemical Perspectives from Pulmonary and Cardiac Tissues

Abstract

Mechanical asphyxia encompasses a range of external forces that disrupt normal respiratory or vascular
function, resulting in critical oxygen deprivation and death. It includes mechanisms such as hanging, strangulation,
smothering, chest compression, and drowning. Diagnosing such deaths can be challenging due to the nonspecific nature of
external findings and the overlap of internal features with other hypoxic states. As a result, histopathological