This book “Manual of Autopsy Pathology” intends to guide the student in the approach to autopsy work, to detect the nature of disease and cause of death. We have included commonly encountered diseases of diagnostic importance essentially for undergraduate teaching. Additions and suggestions are surely welcome as learning is a continuous process.

The manuscript preparation has been a monumental task, ably handled by the teaching faculty of Dept. of Pathology, Govt. Medical College, Dhule. I record my appreciation for Dr Mrs Vasaikar MS, Dr Miss Patil AB, Dr Ranka SC, Dr Jamkar AA, Dr Kulkarni SS, Dr Patil RM, Dr Borude P, Dr Vasave V who have strived against time to complete this work.

The editorial assistance has been ably given by Dr BB Sonawane and Dr Mrs MN Kotwal.

The unfailing support given by my wife is gratefully acknowledged.

I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Dr UL Wagholikar a Giant in autopsy whose work encouraged me embark upon this task.

It is the purpose of necropsy to elicit and expose all lesions present to determine the sequence in which they developed and the extent to which they were interdependent. The principal lesson to be learnt from each necropsy is therefore clarification of the evaluation or natural history of the disease culminating in changes that caused the death of the individual. The correlation of these changes and their sequence with the physical findings, the clinical symptoms and signs and the laboratory data provide the best opportunities for the evaluation of the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis and of the efficiency of treatment.

The modern necropsy record constitutes a unit of scientific information for subsequent study and analysis. In its completeness it has no counterpart in the past. A carefully prepared abstract of the clinical history including the pertinent physical findings, the laboratory data and the observed course of the disease in an essential part of the record. The protocol contains the postmortem observations made on external examination of the body and on examination of the individual organs. It also contains microscopic descriptions of the principal organs and of all those grossly involved. The findings are summarised in the anatomic diagnosis. This is a record in an anatomic language of the events in their sequence as revealed by the gross and microscopic examination and of the individual lesions. First are recorded 10in sequence the principal lesions that led to death; then are listed the accidental other lesions and abnormalities observed. For example, a patient with hypertension, if this was a dominant factor in the cause of death, may according to the necropsy findings have had “nephrosclerosis, arterial and arteriolar; cardiac hypertrophy, and dilatation chronic passive congestion of the viscera with ascites, hydrothorax, bilateral and hydropericardium; pneumonia, focal, bilateral”. Another patient with hypertension may have had, nephrosclerosis; arterial and arteriolar; cardiac hypertrophy with scarring of the myocardium; sclerosis of the coronary arteries with occlusion of the left anterior descending branch and infarction of the myocardium.” Still another patient may have had “nephrosclerosis, arterial and arteriolar; cardiac hypertrophy, sclerosis of the cerebral vessels with occlusion and haemorrhage into left cerebral hemisphere.”