Search results for "Autopsy"
showing 10 items of 141 documents
Concept and Treatment of Hydrocephalus in the Greco-Roman and Early Arabic Medicine
2007
In the ancient medical literature hydrocephalus was not often described although its existence and symptomatology were well known. Most detailed descriptions of hydrocephalus including the surgical treatment are extant in the encyclopaedic works on medicine of the physicians Oreibasios and Aetios from Amida from the 4th and 6th centuries AD, respectively. Because of their broad scientific interests, this type of physicians, typical for the late Roman empire, were known as philosophy-physicians (iota alpha tau rho o sigma o phi iota sigma tau alpha iota). They defined hydrocephalus in contrast to our present understanding as a fluid collection excluding abscesses visible as a bulging tumour …
Role of virtopsy in the post-mortem diagnosis of drowning.
2014
Purpose: Due to admitted limits of autopsy-based studies in the diagnosis of drowning, virtopsy is considered the new imaging horizon in these post-mortem studies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of virtopsy performed through computed tomography (CT) in the forensic diagnosis of drowning. Materials and methods: We retrospectively examined the CT data of four cadavers recovered from sea water and suspected to have died by drowning. Each patient underwent a full-body post-mortem CT scan, and then a traditional autopsy. Conclusion: To date, there are no autopsy findings pathognomonic of drowning. This study proves that virtopsy is a useful tool in the diagnosis of drowning in tha…
An Insight into the Role of Postmortem Immunohistochemistry in the Comprehension of the Inflammatory Pathophysiology of COVID-19 Disease and Vaccine-…
2021
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic due to the spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan, China, causing high mortality rates all over the world. The related disease, which mainly affects the lungs, is responsible for the onset of Diffuse Alveolar Damage (DAD) and a hypercoagulability state, frequently leading to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and multiorgan failure, particularly in old and severe-critically ill patients. In order to find effective therapeutic strategies, many efforts have been made aiming to shed light on the pathophysiology of COVID-19 disease. Moreover, following the late advent of vaccination campaigns, the need for the comprehension …
Postmortem Imaging in Drowning
2019
The diagnosis of drowning is one of the most difficult in the field of forensic medicine since the autopsy findings are often not specific and the laboratory examinations are controversially appreciated by the scientific community. In a cadaver recovered from water, it is of utmost importance to differentiate antemortem and postmortem drowning. This chapter fully investigates biological/thanato-chemical, pathological and imaging findings which may guide the definitive diagnosis.
The History of Rheumatic Diseases
1975
The lectures of Schonlein* (1873) (Fig. 1) state: The nature of this disease being more dynamic, explains the fact that few abnormalities of significance have been found at autopsy. This statement stems from the inadequacy of the then current methods but also suggests a concept of rheumatic diseases, some ingredients of which have survived to this day. However, even a short review of medical history shows progressive differentiation of various disease entities: originally Hippocrates (460–377 BC) took “Rheuma” and “Catarrh” to be synonymous with a process during which “mucous flux” left the brain for various foci in the entrails and also the joints, and there produced disease. He mentions “…
Three-dimensional helical computed tomography in prenatal diagnosis of fetal skeletal dysplasia
2013
Objectives (1) To study the use and diagnostic value, as a complement to ultrasound, of helical computed tomography (helical CT) to differentiate normal fetuses from cases of skeletal dysplasia; (2) to define the most relevant indications for helical CT; and (3) to evaluate its diagnostic performance with respect to radiological criteria considered discriminatory. Methods This was a retrospective study from 2005 to 2008 in 67 pregnant women who underwent helical CT after 26 weeks of gestation for suspected fetal skeletal dysplasia due to fetal shortened long bones on ultrasound (≤ 10thpercentile), either alone or associated with other bone abnormalities. The results were compared with pedia…
Malignant metastatic melanoma to the gallbladder: Report of a peculiar case
2020
Highlights • Melanoma is one of the most aggressive and one of the fastest growing types of cancer. The gallbladder envolvement from a metastatic cutaneous malignant melanoma is a highly uncommon finding, usually associated with diffuse metastatic disease and observed during autopsy. • We report a case of a 35-years old Caucasian woman with isolated metastasis of gallbladder form cutaneous primary malignant melanoma underwent to laparoscopic cholecystectomy. • Malignant cutaneous melanoma is a skin cancer characterized by the highest mortality. Isolated metastasis of gallbladder are barely described and mostly present in a widespread metastatic disease. Surgical treatment is indicated consi…
Persistent endotheliopathy in the pathogenesis of long COVID syndrome
2021
Background Persistent symptoms including breathlessness, fatigue, and decreased exercise tolerance have been reported in patients after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The biological mechanisms underlying this “long COVID” syndrome remain unknown. However, autopsy studies have highlighted the key roles played by pulmonary endotheliopathy and microvascular immunothrombosis in acute COVID-19. Objectives To assess whether endothelial cell activation may be sustained in convalescent COVID-19 patients and contribute to long COVID pathogenesis. Patients and Methods Fifty patients were reviewed at a median of 68 days following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition to clinical workup, acute phase markers, …
Fresh cell therapy followed by fatal coma
1986
A 60-year-old woman received a 3-day course of nine injections of “fresh” cells from fetal lamb ovary, placenta, brain (hypothalamus) and liver. There were no immediate complications, but a few days later she developed headache, fever and hemiparesis. She subsequently fell into a coma and died 3 weeks after her fresh cell therapy and 2 weeks after the onset of her clinical symptoms. Autopsy revealed perivenous leucoencephalopathy with a probably steroid-treatment-induced paucity of perivascular inflammation. Fresh cell therapy, clinical symptomatology and morphological findings suggest, though do not prove, that this patient's monophasic and probably immune-mediated disease is a rare and fa…
Vertebrobasilar junction giant aneurysm: Lessons learned from a neurosurgical audit and anatomical investigation.
2015
The treatment of vascular lesions of the vertebrobasilar junction (VBJ) remains a challenging task in the neurosurgical practice and the gold standard therapy is still under debate. In this article, the authors report a detailed postmortem study of a VBJ giant aneurysm (GA) previously endovascularly treated. Although the decision-making process for the vast majority of neurosurgical treatment can nowadays be accurately carried out during the preoperative planning (i.e., with the aid of neuroimaging fusion protocols, neuronavigation platforms, etc.) meant to maximize the anatomical understanding of the lesions and minimize possible intraprocedural challenges, this postmortem study represents…