Post-mortem examinations

The sizes and shapes of impact craters are easily measured at leisure after the impact event. The particles of a debris cloud can present more of a problem, however, because of the difficulty of recovering the particles without damaging them during the recovery process. Attempts at soft recovery have been numerous and of varying degress of success. Occasionally, it has been desir- 

Shock-compression science originated during and after World War II when experimental facilities for creating planar shock waves were developed, along with prompt instrumentation techniques enabling shock velocity and particle velocity measurements to be made. The main thrust of shock-compression science is to understand the physics and to measure the material properties which govern the outcome of shock-compression events. Experiments involving planar shock waves are the most useful in shock-compression science. 

The experimental methods for producing planar shock compression can be divided into three general categories, namely, explosives, guns, and energy deposition. Guns are considered the most versatile of the three. 

The diagnostics applied to shock experiments can be characterized as either prompt or delayed. Prompt instrumentation measures shock velocity, particle velocity, stress history, or temperature during the initial few shock transits of the specimen, and leads to the basic equation of state information on the specimen material. Delayed instrumentation includes optical photography and flash X-rays of shock-compression events, as well as post-mortem examinations of shock-produced craters and soft-recovered debris material. 

A projectile with a flat noseplate perpendicular to its motion impacts a larger flat specimen plate. However, the specimen plate is not perfectly aligned, resulting in a slight tilt at impact. 

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Cardiac arrhythmias are an important cause of morbidity and mortality approximately 400,000 people per year die from myocardial infarctions (MI) in the United States alone. Individuals with MI exhibit some form of dysrhythmia within 48 h. Post-mortem examinations of MI victims indicate that many die in spite of the fact that the mass of ventricular muscle deprived of its blood supply is often quite small. These data suggest that the cause of death is ventricular fibrillation and that the immediate availability of a safe and efficacious antiarrhythmic agent could have prolonged a number of Hves. The goals of antiarrhythmic therapy are to reduce the incidence of sudden death and to alleviate the symptoms of arrhythmias, such as palpitations and syncope. Several excellent reviews of the mechanisms of arrhythmias and the pharmacology of antiarrhythmic agents have been pubflshed (1,2). 

Delayed measurements, such as photographs (Swift, 1990 Isbell, 1990) of debris clouds and even post-mortem examinations, contribute less directly to... 

A post-mortem examination and a rectal temperature of 41°C (106°F) were recorded. He had needle marks typical of intravenous drug abuse and pulmonary and cerebral edema. Abrasions and contusions of the ankles and wrists were evident from his struggling. Lidocaine was not administered to the victim during the resuscitative attempts. The clinical presentation of cocaine delirium... 

Pituitary glands of patients who died of fully developed AIDS or ARC (M4) were examined under light microscopy with the aid of immunohistochemistry. On post mortem examination, a wide series of multiorgan alterations was noticed. Microscopically various lesions in both adeno- and neurohypophysis were seen. These ranged from vessel damage to secondaries to systemic infections,... 

Post-mortem examination of victims is essential if a bomb exploded in the passenger cabin then significant evidence is likely to be produced from the bodies of those in the immediate vicinity. 

Necropsy of test systems or post-mortem examination of test systems. 

A 67-year-old man developed Stevens-Johnson syndrome after taking glibenclamide 20 mg/day for 4 weeks, having previously used insulin. He died from hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia. Post mortem examination also showed features of granulomatous arteritis and cholestatic interface hepatitis, suggestive of a hypersensitivity reaction (129). 

Studies of reproductive and teratogenic effects of OPPs on humans are few. Gordon et al. (1981) found stronger correlations of cleft lip and palate malformations for insecticides and/or herbicides than for all other agrichemicals combined. The post mortem examination of women s ovaries following acute intoxication revealed adverse ovarian effects from parathion and both infertility and menstrual disturbances were observed in female applicators of OPPs. Also, women from fruit growing areas exposed to OPPs experienced earlier menopause, infertility and other functional irregularities—e.g., in the liver and nervous system and in bile production. 

Attempts were also made to correlate clinical observations with the results of chemical analyses of the urine and its deposits and to post-mortem observations. No one was more successful in this field than Richard Bright working at Guy s Hospital in London with a team of young physicians and medical students.135-137 They studied the symptoms of kidney disease by clinical and chemical examinations and related their observations to post-mortem examination of the morbid kidney. Bright, whose work was published in 1825, was one of the first physicians to couple his hospital treatments systematically with chemical and physiological research directed towards precision in diagnosis and treatment.138... 

Spontaneous dissection of the internal carotid or the vertebral artery is an important cause of ischemic stroke in young adults (Fig. 1.3). In the late 1970s Fisher et al. (1978) and Mokri et al. (1979) described dissections of carotid and vertebral arteries as detected by modern diagnostic techniques rather than by post-mortem examination. This may occur... 

Abbate A, Bussani R, Biondi-Zoccai GG, Rossiello R, Silvestri F, Baldi F, et al. Persistent infarct-related artery occlusion is associated with an increased myocardial apoptosis at post-mortem examination in humans late after an acute myocardial infarction. Circulation 2002 106 1051-1054. 

Post-mortem examination was done in four of the 10 patients (Patient Nos. 5, 7-9). Brain Al contents of cerebral cortex of these four patients were 0.93 to 1.81 pg/g dry weight (normal 0.14-0.22 pg/g values in patients with chronic Al encephalopathy 0.4-3 pg/g) [65]. On light-microscopic evaluation of the gyrus frontalis superior and inferior, hippocampus, nucleus lentiformis and insula, capsula interna and caudatus, thalamus, nucleus dentatus cerebelli, brainstem, and pons, non-specific changes of some fibrohyalin thickening of the wall of the blood vessels and brain edema were noted. 

In certain post-mortem examinations where the search for a probable cause of death may depend upon the presence or absence of a specific compound. With LC, you can rapidly screen samples for that compound. For instance, when morphine is suspected, a quick (5 min.) screening test can be done. If morphine is present, it will show up as a peak in a characteristic position in the chromatogram and confirmatory tests can be run. If morphine peak is absent, the investigation will take another direction. 

Q3 Post-mortem examinations of the brains of patients with Alzheimer s disease show loss of cortical neurones and abnormal depositions of proteins in the cerebral tissues. The normal structure of the brain is modified by /l-amyloid plaques, sometimes called senile plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles produced by abnormal neurones. Neurochemical changes in the brain occur, mainly involving cholinergic systems but also other neurotransmitters and neuro modulators. 

Q10 Final confirmation of the diagnosis can only be made at post-mortem examination. 

A 68-year-old man with a 5-year history of Alzheimer s disease was treated with thioridazine 25 mg tds because of violent outbursts (12). His other drugs, temazepam 10-30 mg at night, carbamazepine 100 mg bd for neuropathic pain, and droperidol 5-10 mg as required, were unaltered. Five days later, he was found dead, having been in his usual condition 2 hours before. Post-mortem examination showed stenosis of the coronary arteries, but no coronary thrombosis, myocardial infarction, or other significant pathology. The certified cause of death was cardiac dysrhythmia due to ischemic heart disease. Thioridazine was considered as a possible contributing factor. 

A 25-year-old white man was found dead the morning after he had consumed herbal extracts containing beta-carbolines and hallucinogenic tryptamines (14). No anatomical cause of death was found at post-mortem examination. N,N-dimethyltryptaminc (0.02 mg/1), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (1.88 mg/1), tetra-hydroharmine (0.38 mg/1), harmaline (0.07 mg/1), and harmine (0.17 mg/1) were found in post-mortem blood. 

Traber MG (2006) How much vitamin E... Just enough Am J din Nutr 84(5) 959-960 fictor M, Adams RD, Collins GH (1971) The Wemicke-Korsakoff syndrome. A clinical and pathological study of 245 patients, 82 with post-mortem examinations. Contemp Neurol Set 7 1-206... 

As a result of this information a dose-response relationship has been established in humans which has been shown to be linear but different for each symptom, which means that the thresholds for the particular effects are different. Post-mortem examination of victims revealed degeneration of nerve cells in the brain, especially those involved with vision. As with... 

CN AND CS Toxicity in Animals In animal studies, the cause of death from CN inhalation is the result of toxicity in the pulmonary system. Post-mortem examination from acute toxicity lethality studies in animals... 

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