Perivascular brain microhaemorrhages accompanying a penetrating gunshot wound of the chest

Twenty-four cases of fatal penetrating chest wound by a single bullet were chosen from among 35 541 forensic autopsies, performed in our Institute of Forensic Medicine in past twenty years. All other traumatic factors were excluded, even those in the past history of the deceased. In such meticulously selected cases a brain tissue was examined histologically; samples were taken from brain hemispheres, basal ganglia, the pons, the oblongate and from the cerebellum. Cufflike pattern haemorrhages around small brain vessels were found in all specimens. These haemorrhages are caused by sudden changes of the intravascular blood pressure as a result of a compression of intrathoracic great vessels by a shock wave caused by a penetrating bullet.