Fluorescence microscopy in the detection of early myocardial infarction.

Fluorescent microscopy is amongst the many techniques devised for the post-mortem detection of early myocardial infarction. The method has the advantage of sensitivity, speed and simplicity, compared with more complex techniques such as enzyme histochemistry and electron microscopy. Disadvantages include the difficulty of permanent preservation of the sections and lack of sharp differentiation between normal and very early infarction--though the latter problem is common to most other methods, except enzyme histochemistry. There are two main techniques in fluorescent microscopy: The examination of sections specifically stained by fluorochrome dyes; The re-examination of haematoxylin-eosin sections for 'autofluorescence'.