Description of microscopic lesions of vestibular folds of autopsied adults and their relationship with cause of death and underlying disease

The increase in invasive methods currently applied to diagnosis airway upper tract infection leads to a possible increase in vestibular folds (VF) lesions. Besides, VF importance in the prevention of the organism against infection pathogens had been stressed and few studies had addressed the microscopic lesions of the VF in autopsied patients because there is no routine VF examination in the postmortem exam. AIM: The aim of this study is morphological microscopic analyses of the VF from autopsied patients and its correlation with basic disease and cause of death. STUDY DESIGN: transversal cohort. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We studied 82 larynges collected during the autopsy exam and performed the Hematoxylin -eosin method for morphological analyses. RESULTS: From the 82 vestibular folds analyzed we observe that 42 (51%) showed an inflammatory reaction. In fifteen (18.3%) vestibular folds we found lymphoid follicular hyperplasia, in eleven (13.4%) diffuse inflammatory infiltrate and in sixteen (19.5%) acute inflammatory reactions. Circulatory diseases were the most frequently underlying diseases found, 31 (37.8%) and from these 20 (67.8%) presented associated vestibular folds inflammatory reaction. The infection diseases were the most frequently cause of death among the patients with inflammatory reaction of the VF. CONCLUSION: Besides the anatomic function, VF seem to have a immunological function preventing lower airway infections. Our study demonstrated inflammatory PV reactions in patients with infections diseases as cause of death; this finding could be a consequence of the sepses that leads the patient to death or a different way used by the organism to prevent infection.