Search results for "postmortem"

An improved anatomical MRI technique with suppression of fixative fluid artifacts for the investigation of human postmortem brain phantoms

2016

PURPOSE Phantoms are often used to assess MR system stability in multicenter studies. Postmortem brain phantoms best replicate human brain anatomy, allowing for a combined assessment of the MR system and software chain for data analysis. However, a wash-out of fixative fluid affecting T1 values and thus T1-weighted sequences such as magnetization-prepared 180 degrees radiofrequency pulses and rapid gradient-echo (MP-RAGE) has been reported for brain phantoms, hampering their immediate use. The purpose of this study was the creation of anatomical data that provide the characteristics of conventional data while avoiding this artifact. THEORY AND METHODS Two brain phantoms were scanned at seve…

Unexpected postmortem diagnosis of Acanthamoeba meningoencephalitis following allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

2008

Meningoencephalitis caused by pathogenic free-living amebas is usually fatal. Only a few cases of Acanthamoeba meningoencephalitis, diagnosed at autopsy, have been reported following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We here report a case of Acanthamoeba meningoencephalitis following allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with rapidly evolving neurologic symptoms that remained unexplained. Magnetic resonance imaging failed to show brain lesions and cerebrospinal fluid was negative for microbiological cultures. Definite diagnosis was an unexpected autopsy finding. As overall and teaching hospital autopsy rates are declining worldwide, we must emphasize the need of autop…

The Mode of Calcification in Atherosclerotic Lesions

1977

Calcific deposits in atherosclerotic plaques are usually considered to be an end stage of advanced atheroma formation. Postmortem studies of coronary arteries showed that pronounced atherosclerotic calcifications are strongly associated with stenosis of the involved segments and ischemic myocardial lesions (Eggen et al. 1965; McCarthy and Palmer 1974). A close correlation has also been found between calcific lesions detected by fluoroscopy or cinefluorography and clinical coronary artery disease (Oliver et al. 1964; Wartburton et al. 1968). Therefore, arterial calcification detected during life may be of important prognostic significance. Moreover, larger calcific plaques may influence the …

Does velocity of dilatation influence the result of dilatation? A postmortem study.

1988

We evaluated the influence of velocity of dilatation on the success of and the vascular damage produced by dilatation. Nonatheroslerotic segments of distal superficial femoral arteries were dilated "fast" (n = 69) or "slow" (n = 45) under standard conditions with balloon catheters. The arterial wall was overstretched between 1% and more than 60%. The success of dilatation rose continuously with increasing overstretching during dilatation. The damage to the arterial wall by dilatation increased discontinuously with increasing overstretching. Dilatation success and damage patterns did not differ in the "slow" and "fast" groups.

ABO genotyping by PCR-RFLP and cloning and sequencing

2005

A refined PCR-RFLP based method was established to genotype ABO blood groups. The main objective of this study was to make the techniques also suitable for working with degraded DNA. Specific primer design was carried out to choose fragments shorter than 200 bp as necessary in forensic and archaeological applications. Four fragments of exon 6 and 7 of the ABO gene were amplified and digested by in total 7 restriction endonucleases. Particular attention was paid to the base changes at nucleotide positions 261(delG), 297, 526, 703, 721, 771, 796 and 1060(delC) in order to distinguish the six common alleles A101, A201, B, O01, O02 and O03. Furthermore, this method also enables determination of…

An In Vitro Experiment for Postmortem Vascular Permeation. The Passage of Morphine and Morphine Glucuronides Across a Vascular Wall

1997

A venous blood sample taken at autopsy cannot be considered to represent the antemortem blood concentration of a particular substance. Autolytic processes cause disintegration and increasing permeability of the physiological and anatomical barriers such as vascular walls and lead to changes in substance concentrations. In the present study, the experimental design represents an in vitro postmortem simulation of a drug substance crossing a venous wall. The postmortem behavior of morphine, morphine-3- and morphine-6-glucuronide was investigated. A Chien-Valia-diffusion chamber with a patch of inferior vena cava as diffusion barrier was used. For optimal simulation of postmortem events, vein s…

The chemistry of death--Adipocere degradation in modern graveyards.

2015

The formation of adipocere slows further decomposition and preserves corpses for decades or even centuries. This resistance to degradation is a serious problem, especially with regard to the reuse of graves after regular resting times. We present results from an exhumation series in modern graveyards where coffins from water-saturated earth graves contained adipocere embedded in black humic material after resting times of about 30 years. Based on the assumption that this humic material resulted from in situ degradation of adipocere, its presence contradicts the commonly held opinion that adipocere decomposition only occurs under aerobic conditions. To test our hypothesis, we collected black…

Insights on a Giant Aneurysm Treated Endovascularly

2015

Background  Endovascular treatment with stent-assisted Guglielmi detachable coils is an accepted method for treating intracranial giant aneurysms that otherwise would require more invasive or destructive treatment or could not be treated at all. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of information concerning inner postcoiling aneurysmal changes in human subjects over the long term. We report a postmortem analysis of a patient with a giant aneurysm at the vertebrobasilar junction (VBJ) who was treated endovascularly and studied pathologically 24 months after treatment. Materials and Method  The head was removed at autopsy and prefixed in a 10% neutral buffered formalin solution. The brain was gen…

Certification of Death: External Postmortem Examination

2014

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…