Efficacy of different plastination techniques in lungs of goat: A comparative morphometric study

The study was conducted on apparently healthy caprine lungs to evaluate the efficacy of different plastination techniques by gross biometrical and morphological analysis of the formalin fixed and plastinated specimens. The gross biometrical analysis was made on all the formalin fixed lungs and after that the samples were divided as Group I and Group II with 6 animals in each group. In method I, after proper fixation, the specimens were dehydrated in three changes of acetone (two weeks each), then impregnated in two changes of glycerol for 15 days each and cured in muslin cloth containing corn starch. In method II, modified plastination solution was used as impregnation solution. The plastinates prepared by method I were soft to touch, odorless, the elasticity and colour of lung tissue was near normal, whereas the lungs plastinated by method II were hard to touch and their color turned to whitish grey. The biometric data showed that the shrinkage in weight of lungs was 47.99% in method I and 85.46% in method II. The shrinkage in length of apex to base of right lung was 14.36% and that of left lung was 16.18% by method I. In method II, the length from apex to base was reduced to be 35.84% and 34.83 in right and left lungs, respectively. It was concluded from present study that the plastinated glycerine specimens (Method I) showed lesser deviations from their near natural state as compared to the plastinates prepared by Indigenous method (Method II). The shrinkage was more evident in plastinates prepared Indigenous method (Method II) than by glycerine method (Method I). So, it is recommended that glycerine method of plastination should be preferred to any other method of plastination.