Recommended technique for brain removal to retain anatomic integrity of the pineal gland in order to determine its size in sudden infant death syndrome.

A standardized removal and dissection procedure is presented for human infant brain. A previously unreported cistern of the pineal gland must be severed at autopsy in order to preserve the gland's anatomic integrity during brain removal. Utilization of these methods to investigate Sudden Infant Death Syndrome brain tissue should facilitate interdisciplinary studies and comparisons of inter agency findings. We use these dissection procedures to extend our findings on reduced pineal gland size as an anatomic marker assisting the forensic pathologist in making the diagnosis of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.