Detection of gold particles in the neck skin after lightning stroke with evaporation of an ornamental chain.

A German couple was struck by lightning. Both patients survived this event. Whereas the husband was unconscious for only a few minutes, his wife fell into coma for 24 h. The lightning stroke entered the body of the woman behind the left ear and left it at the left shoe. The stroke caused a partial evaporation of a gold ornamental chain on the neck, resulting in a tattoo of the neck skin. A biopsy of the skin 6 months after the event showed the accumulation of gold particles of different size in the dermis down to the subcutaneous fatty tissue. In semithin sections, histiocytes, multinucleated foreign giant cells, and fibroblasts were visible with uptaken metallic particles. In transmission electron microscopy, gold globules of up to 30 microm in diameter were visible outside the cells in the collageneous matrix of the connective tissue besides smaller metallic particles up to 5 nm inside lysosomes and residual bodies of phagocytic cells. Four different kinds of gold particles could be differentiated: globules, granular irregular particles, tubules, and tanglelike tracks. In scanning electron microscopy, gold particles were demonstrated by backscatter detection in the connective tissue of subcutis, where the EDX elemental analysis showed strong signals of aurum (Au), copper (Cu), and argentum (Ag). The detected metals were quantified by AAS as 70% gold, 21% silver, and 9% copper, which demonstrates the composition of gold alloy of the neck chain of the patient. Tanglelike tracks and elongated gold deposits represent crystals of gold salts, as detected by electron diffraction and polarization microscopy. Attempts to remove the gold particles from the skin to remove the tattoo should not be undertaken because the gold is deep and widespread.

Electron microscopic detection of tin accumulation in biliopancreatic concrements after induction of chronic pancreatitis in rats by di-n-butyltin dichloride.

The organotin compound di-n-butyltin dichloride (DBTC) is able to induce an acute and later a chronic pancreatitis in rats. In previous papers the authors demonstrated this DBTC pancreatitis as a rat model for an interstitial pancreatitis with tendency to transduction to the chronic form. DBTC is excreted according to its lipophilic nature by liver and bile. Therefore, the bilio-pancreatic main duct is necrotized by the tin-loaded bile. The duct system is blocked by cell debris and later by epithelial proliferations. In the chronic phase, numerous rats develop concrements in the main duct. In the present paper, the authors report about bacterial growth in some bilio-pancreatic concrements. Whereas the electron microscopic detection of tin by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) in SEM or electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in TEM was negative in the parenchyma of pancreas and liver, some concrements with bacterial cells were positive for this element. Tin mapping with energy spectroscopic imaging (ESI) in TEM demonstrated the congruency of tin signals and electron-dense particles inside these bacteria and of electron-dense accumulations in the matrix of these concrements. The low content of tin in pancreatic and liver tissue and the higher quantity of tin inside the bacterial contaminated concrements were supported by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). The paper discusses the long time preservation of tin in the concrements as an action of heavy-metal- accumulating bacteria, which should be classified in the future by bacteriological methods.