Cause of death factors

Cause of Death Factors which produce cessation of all vital bodily functions. They can be analyzed from an epidemiologic viewpoint. [NIH]... 

Traumatic brain injury is the most common cause of death in subjects under the age of 40, and an important risk factor for AD. Loss of hippocampal cells and depletion of ACh and of muscarinic receptors can be attenuated in injured experimental animals, improve blood perfusion in ischemic areas and increase cholinergic transmission in cortex and hippocampus the same mechanism invoked for treatment of VD. 

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are a number of established risk factors including serum cholesterol levels, smoking and family history, which are responsible for between 50 and 75% of the CVD cases, with the remainder due to factors that cause atherosclerosis. Estrogen treatment such as hormone replacement therapy is known to protect against CVD by decreasing the levels of low-density... 

Cardiovascular disease has been identified as one of the leading causes of death in organ transplant recipients.55 Posttransplant hypertension (HTN) is associated with an increase in cardiac morbidity and patient mortality in all transplant patients and is also an independent risk factor for chronic allograft dysfunction and loss.56 Based on all the available posttransplant morbidity and mortality data, it is imperative that posttransplant HTN be identified and managed appropriately. 

The most important item to keep in mind when interpreting this data is that all the relationships mentioned are merely associations between a disease outcome and some personal characteristic which is common to a high proportion of subjects who experience the disease. Even if statistical testing has essentially ruled out chance phenomenon as a likely explanation for these observed associations, there is still the very real possibility that the associations are indirect and, thus, not directly relevant to the cause of the disease. For example, it is likely that Adventists who use meat and/or coffee may have many other characteristics which are different from subjects who abstain from these products. One or more of these characteristics may be the important factor which actually accounts for the association between meat and a specific cause of death. Yet, such a factor may not have been measured or taken into account during the data analysis. 

Ischaemic stroke is the third leading cause of death in industrialized countries. The debilitating or lethal consequences of transient or temporary reductions in cerebral blood flow are not only caused by necrosis in the infarct zone itself, but also by pathophysiological events in the peri-infarct zone [14]. Apparently, the release of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and NO contributes to tissue inflammatory injury. There is also evidence for apoptosis in the peri-infarct zone. These processes offer novel targets for therapeutic strategies. In this respect, the potential of neurotrophic factor treatment is described in Section 2.4.2.6. 

Thrombin, a serine protease, cleaves fibrinogen into fibrin to create a fibrous plug and also amplifies its own production through the activation of factor XI and cofactors V and Vlll. Thrombin also plays a crucial role in the activation of platelets through the cleavage of the protease-activated receptors on the platelet surface. Antagonists of G-protein-coupled protease-activated receptor PARi have been synthesised to study the role of thrombin PARi receptor in thrombosis and vascular injury. Thrombosis is the most common cause of death in the industrialised world and, whether through venous thromboembolism, myocardial infarction or stroke, ultimately involves the inappropriate activity of... 

Mice exposed to 1,000 and 3,000 ppm hexachlorobutadiene in their diet (19-36 mg/kg/day) died after 3-5 days (NTP 1991 Yang et al. 1989). Animals exposed to 30-300 ppm (3-49 mg/kg/day) survived the 15 day exposure period. Survival was not reduced in rats exposed to 100 mg/kg/day hexachlorobutadiene for 30 days or at dose levels of 15.6 mg/kg/day for 13 weeks (Harleman and Seinen 1979) and 100 mg/kg/day (Kociba et al. 1971). Mice survived dose levels of up to 19.2 mg/kg/day for 13 weeks (NTP 1991). In lifetime studies, survival was reduced significantly in male rats exposed to hexachlorobutadiene at a dose level of 20 mg/kg/day (Kociba et al. 1977a). Although the cause of death was not reported, renal damage, a major effect manifested by this compound, may have been a contributing factor. 

The death rate for heart disease has actually been declining over the past few decades, while the number of patients with CAD is increasing. This may reflect increasing quality of medical care, but it should be noted that in the elderly, heart disease becomes an ever more important cause of death, much more so than cancer. There are also concerns that while a lot of attention has been directed at smoking and cholesterol as risk factors, hypertension and diabetes are emerging as the next generation of major risk factors and are further accentuated in our increasingly obese and sedentary society. 

Diabetes mellitus is currently the fourth leading cause of death in most developed countries. The worldwide incidence of diabetes is increasing. In 1995, some 135 million people were affected. This figure is projected to increase to 300 million by 2025. The increasing incidence is due to a number of factors, including increasing world population, population ageing, unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles and obesity. 

Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the industrialized world (Packer, 1992 Remme and Swedberg, 2001). Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is associated with an increased incidence of stroke and coronary heart disease. Other risk factors for cardiovascular disease include also high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. Although there have been many advances in treatment over the past several decades, less than a quarter of all hypertensive patients have their blood pressure adequately controlled with available therapies. 

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