Abstract: Objective To observe the pathological changes in crush syndrome caused by myoglobin. Methods By using Envision Immunohistochemical staining, myoglobin was detected in the kidney block of 34 autopsy cases, among which 22 cases with extensively injury in muscle and soft tissues before death as experiment group, and other 12 cases without the above histories as control. Results It is showed that in the experiment group, eight cases (8/22) appeared positive staining of myoglobin masses in the cavities of renal and collecting tubules, whose injury time were range from 36 hours to 10 days. While other seven cases showed positive staining in the surface of the cavities and plasm adjacent the edges of distal tubules, collecting tubules and and proximal tibules, whose injury time were early as eight hours. During injury time between 24 and 48 hours, the staining get to the most obvious. On the contrary the control group showed negative. Conclusion Myoglobin significantly lead to crush syndrome renal damage such as the direct lesions done to tubule epithelial, the firmation of myoglobin masses, and the blockage of renal tubules. Myoglobin detection in kidney may play an important role in forensic pathological diagnosis of crush syndrome(CS).

Key words: crush syndrome, myoglobin, immunohistochemistry, kidney