To assess the usefulness of vital statistics and surveillance for monitoring abortion mortality, the authors compared data from two systems of classification: 1) deaths classified according to the underlying cause by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) under the International Classification of Disease, Adapted (ICDA) code numbers 640-645 (abortion) for 1972-1975; and 2) abortion-related deaths reported to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) through its epidemiologic surveillance of abortion mortality for the same years. Vital statistics classifications dealing with the underlying cause of death are based on criteria defined by ICDA guidelines applied to all available information listed on death certificates, and exclude some deaths classified as abortion-related by CDC. Surveillance classifications are based on broader criteria developed by CDC for expanded data gathered by individual case investigation. Results showed that the surveillance techniques had identified more deaths as abortion-related and had resolved more cases into the specific abortion categories of legal, illegal, and spontaneous than vital statistics tabulations based on death certificates. The authors estimate that the surveillance system alone reported 88% of all abortion-related deaths, the vital statistics system 52%, and the two systems combined a total of 94%. Inadequate physician documentation on the death certificate was the primary reason vital statistics data contained a smaller number of reported abortion deaths than surveillance data.

Abortion, Illegal↗

PubMed1975

Dissociation of serum LATS activity and hyperfunction and autonomy of the thyroid gland in Graves' disease.

LATS was measured with the double isotope technique in IgG serum concentrates of 23 patients with Graves' disease before treatment and of 18 patients during treatment with carbimazole and triiodothyronine. LATS activity was present in 18 out of 23 patients before treatment (78%). When the second measurement was taken into account the incidence did increase to 95%. No difference could be found in the mean values of total thyroxine, thyroid 131-I uptake and thyroid weight of the group of LATS positive and LATS negative patients before treatment. Also no relation could be established between LATS activity and suppressibility of thyroid 131-I uptake during treatment. It was found that LATS positive patients who suppress during therapy have lower initial LATS blood levels than LATS positive patients who remain unsuppressed. It is concluded that it is more likely that LATS is a "marker" of Graves' disease rather than the cause of the hyperthyroidism.

Adult↗

PubMed1974