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At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Initiation of formal death investigation procedures among the Northern Plains Indians: a necessary adjunct in the study of American Indian sudden infant deaths.

The high rate of infant mortality among native peoples in the Aberdeen Service Area of the Indian Health Service (primarily North and South Dakota) prompted a multi-institutional study of this problem. The study investigators assumed that local coroners or medical examiners would be able to perform suitable death scene investigations. However, during the design portion of the study it became apparent that, with one exception, none of the participating Indian Nations had a death investigator or even a legal mandate to provide death investigation. To allow the study to go forward, and ultimately to better the community health within its service area, the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service submitted a draft enabling coroner legislation/resolutions to the area tribes. By November of 1996, 6 of the 19 Indian Nations enacted enabling coroner legislation. To facilitate both the study and general death investigation within the area, the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service since 1993 has held five 2-day death investigation training programs covering a variety of death investigation topics which were attended by 68 participants. Without further recognition of the need for tribal death investigation and additional funding, these gains in tribal death investigation will probably be transitory.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1990

Sentinel Health Events (Occupational): analysis of death certificates among residents of Nassau County, NY between 1980-82 for occupationally related causes of death.

Death certificates for residents of Nassau County, New York dying between 1980 and 1982 were examined for causes of death defined as Sentinel Health Events (Occupational) (SHE(O]. Of 16,193 deaths from all causes, 2,286 (14.1 percent) were identified as SHE(O) deaths; 142 (6.2 percent) of these were matched for occupational and/or industry, 13 (9.2 percent) of which required no further match [corrected] because the cause of death was inherently related to the occupation or industry. Malignant neoplasms of the trachea, bronchus, or lung were the most frequently occurring SHE(O), accounting for 60 percent of all SHE(O) deaths and 81 percent of matched SHE(O) deaths. The construction industry was associated with the vast majority of such deaths.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Cause of death in patients with end-stage renal disease: death certificates vs registry reports.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess agreement on cause of death reporting in end-stage renal disease patients by comparing death certificates and reports to an end-stage renal disease registry. METHODS: Death certificates and registry reporting forms were retrieved for a random sample of 335 treated end-stage renal disease patients who died between 1980 and 1986 in Maryland. On the registry form, patient death was ascribed to 1 of 22 precoded causes by the patient's nephrologist of record. Corresponding death certificates were coded, according to rules of the International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, by a trained observer unaware of the registry report. Agreement was measured by the kappa statistic. RESULTS: Overall cause of death agreement was poor (31%), and varied by the following categories: renal disease (40% on death certificates vs 0% on registry reports), cardiovascular disease (26% vs 47%), infectious disease (16% vs 22%), cancer (7% vs 5%), and withdrawal from therapy (0% vs 3%). Agreement was higher for transplant recipients than for dialyzed patients. CONCLUSIONS: Death certificates and registry reports yield different descriptions of mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. These sources of information should not be used interchangeably. Improvements to International Classification of Diseases coding of renal diseases and the determination of the reliability and validity of the US Renal Data System reporting process are necessary steps in the development of renal disease epidemiology.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1999

Deaths due to dementia: An analysis of multiple-cause-of-death data.

This study analyzes multiple-cause-of-death information from over 113,000 death certificates of Canadians aged 65+ and identifies causes that are significantly likely and significantly unlikely to combine with dementia to cause death. For dementia as a mentioned cause and as the underlying cause of death, frequencies and rates of death were calculated. Dementia was mentioned on death certificates 2.4 times as often as it occurred as the underlying cause of death. Among the causes least associated with dementia were some cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Causes of death that rarely occur with dementia should be further investigated in terms of their potential role in preventing or delaying the onset of dementia. In particular, further study of the role of anti-inflammatory drugs and nicotine in reducing the risk of dementia is indicated. Causes positively associated with dementia largely reflect the physical deterioration it confers.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed1998

Linking death reports from the Malaysian Family Life Survey-2 with birth and death certificates.

The Malaysian Family Life Survey--2 (MFLS-2) was a population-based survey conducted in Peninsular Malaysia in 1988-89. Through detailed birth histories, it attempted to collect information on all pregnancies and their outcomes from ever-married women, as well as socioeconomic and health services-utilization data that might have affected mortality. The survey did not, however, collect information on the causes of infant death. The two objectives of this study were to assess the feasibility of linking all reported deaths among live births of women interviewed in the MFLS-2 to the birth and death certificates kept by the National Registration Department, and to determine the causes of death from the successfully matched death certificates. This information could be used in the development of specific health programs to decrease infant and child mortality. In this study, the success rates for linking survey data to birth and death certificates were 34.5% and 31.8% respectively. Methodological problems faced during the study are discussed, as are the strengths and limitations of record linking as a means of increasing the utility of birth histories for studying the causes of death. Ways to improve linkage rates of survey data with the national birth and death registration are also suggested.

Birth Certificates↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Comparability of the data presented in the medical death certificate and the death rate statistics index].

It having been impossible to use the Death Rate Statistics Index for analyzing the death rate in the city of Seville for 1985 and this Index having been substituted by the Medical Death Certificate has lead us to carry out this study to compare the data reflected in these two documents and determine the extent to which the Medical Death Certificate conforms to the Death Rate Statistics Index, used officially, and its validity. The results show that both documents tally to a great degree, the DRSI providing somewhat more information with regard to the process leading up to the deaths, this having led us to decide to make the death rate analysis for 1985 in Seville by using the Medical Death Certificate as the document on which the information will be based.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1990

[Frequency of causes of death related to sudden infant death syndrome in Denmark during the period 1972-1983].

Differences in the incidence of infant mortality due to sudden infant death syndrome between the regions of the three Institutes of Forensic Medicine in Denmark are known to exist. To investigate whether these could be due to differences in incidence of causes of death such as suffocation and respiratory infections, the rates and types of autopsy were analysed regarding these death causes. The number of deaths due to these causes and the development in the incidence cannot explain the variation of the incidence of SIDS, in the areas observed. For each of the three periods under consideration (1972-1975, 1976-1979, 1980-1983) the variation between institutes in SIDS-rate is relatively larger than the variation in the total rate of deaths due to these three groups of death causes. In the latest period the total rate is 1.93, 1.77 and 1.27 per 1,000 liveborn in Cophenhagen, Odense and Arhus areas, respectively. The study suggests different evaluations of the results of autopsy. A higher incidence of deaths due to congenital heart defects is seen in Arhus, where the lowest incidence of SIDS is observed. A prospective study (1987-1988) of all cases of sudden infant death in Denmark was initiated by the three forensic Institutes with the aim of evaluating possible time and regional incidence variations using identical diagnostic criteria.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1993

An analysis of risk factors for death and mode-specific death after aortic valve replacement with allograft, xenograft, and mechanical valves.

From September 1967 to January 1990, a total of 2100 patients underwent 2366 aortic valve replacements with a variety of allograft, xenograft, and mechanical valves. Concomitant procedures were performed in 764 patients. Actuarial survival at 12 years was 59.6% (70% confidence limits 57.8% to 61.4%). Hazard function for death was highest immediately after operation, falling to merge with a slowly rising phase of risk at approximately 3 months. Actuarial freedom from sudden death at 12 years was 88.0% (70% confidence limits 86.7% to 89.3%). The shape of the hazard function for sudden death was similar to that for death. Actuarial freedom from death with cardiac failure at 12 years was 87.9% (70% confidence limits 86.5% to 89.2%). The shape of the hazard function for death with cardiac failure was also similar to that for death. Risk factor analysis revealed the important deleterious impact on long-term survival resulting from impaired left ventricular structure and function because of aortic valve disease. No current-era valve used in this study (allograft, xenograft, or mechanical) was a risk factor for death. Both aortic wall disease and endocarditis necessitating aortic valve replacement substantially decreased long-term patient survival. Aortic valve replacement is advisable much earlier in the natural history of aortic valve disease before secondary left ventricular damage occurs.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1990

Danish ethics council rejects brain death as the criterion of death -- commentary 2: return to Elsinore.

No discussion of when an individual is dead is meaningful in the absence of a definition of death. If human death is defined as the irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness combined with the irreversible loss of the capacity to breathe spontaneously (and hence to maintain a spontaneous heart beat) the death of the brainstem will be seen to be the necessary and sufficient condition for the death of the individual. Such a definition of death is not something radically new. It is merely the reformulation -- in the language of the neurophysiologist -- of much older concepts such as the 'departure of the (conscious) soul from the body' and the 'loss of the breath of life'. All death -- in this perspective -- is, and always has been, brainstem death....

Advisory Committees↗
PubMed1998

Sudden infant death with external airways covered: case-comparison study of 206 deaths in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To study factors associated with sudden infant deaths occurring with the external airways (ie, nose and mouth) covered by bedding. DESIGN: Case-comparison study of infants dying with vs those dying without the external airways covered. SETTING: Death-scene investigation and reconstruction at the site of death using an infant mannequin; 18 metropolitan areas. PARTICIPANTS: Caregivers for a consecutive sample of infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Complete data from 206 of 382 eligible cases. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Among infants dying suddenly and unexpectedly, an analysis of whether sociodemographic risk factors for SIDS, sleep practices, or bedding increased the risk of dying with the external airways covered. RESULTS: Data were analyzed by using univariate and 2 types of multivariate risk analysis, logistic regression and latent class. Of the victims, 59 (29%) were found with the external airways covered. Conventional risk factors for SIDS did not affect the risk of death with the external airways covered. Factors increasing the risk of death with the external airways covered included prone sleep position (odds ratio [OR], 2.86) and using soft bedding (OR, 5.28), such as comforters (OR, 2.46) and pillows (OR, 3.31). Infants at low risk for death with the external airways covered slept in the prone position, but rarely on a pillow, comforter, or other bedding that allowed a pocket to form beneath the face. All 9 infants who were positioned supine or on one side for sleep and found with the external airways covered had turned and were found dead in the prone position. CONCLUSIONS: Sudden infant deaths with the external airways covered were common in the United States when most infants slept prone. Soft bedding, including pillows and comforters, increased the risk that an infant who died would be found with the external airways covered. Therefore, these items should not be placed near infants, regardless of the sleep position.

Bedding and Linens↗
PubMed2004

An audit of a British sample of death certificates in which anorexia nervosa is listed as a cause of death.

OBJECTIVE: Anorexia nervosa is associated with an increased mortality rate. National mortality statistics based on statutory death certification are potentially an important source of information. However, there are reasons to believe that these statistics may be subject to significant errors. An audit of the quality of information and diagnosis was conducted on death certificates in which anorexia nervosa was mentioned. METHOD: The current study examined data from death certificates of people who died in England and Wales between 1993 and 1999. RESULTS: There were 230 such deaths, but only 128--just over one half--were rated as likely to be deaths associated with true anorexia nervosa. DISCUSSION: National mortality statistics derived from death certificates are a flawed source of information on deaths from anorexia nervosa when taken at face value. There may be both underreporting and overreporting. Detailed examination may improve their usefulness by reducing the overerreporting. It seems likely that the association of deaths with anorexia nervosa is systematically underreported.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Lack of correspondence between mRNA expression for a putative cell death molecule (SGP-2) and neuronal cell death in the central nervous system.

Neuronal death during nervous system development, a widely observed phenomenon, occurs through unknown mechanisms. Recent evidence suggests an active, destructive process requiring new gene expression. Sulfated glycoprotein-2 (SGP-2), a secretory product of testicular Sertoli cells has been shown to up-regulate in several nonneural tissues undergoing programmed cell death and in several types of neuronal degeneration. In order to determine if this message up-regulates in neurons undergoing developmentally determined cell death, we have studied the expression of SGP-2 mRNA in the developing and adult rat central nervous system (CNS) with in situ hybridization. We also report on the expression of this message in nonneural tissues from several regions of the developing embryo. The developing and adult rat central nervous system as well as widely varied tissues in the rat embryo express SGP-2 mRNA in a pattern that does not correlate with regions undergoing developmental cell death. In the nervous system, SGP-2 mRNA is expressed in neuronal populations including motor neurons, cortical neurons, and hypothalamic neurons at ages when the period of developmental cell death has passed. In a nonneural tissue (palatal shelve epithelium) for which a developmental cell death period has been described, SGP-2 mRNA was not present in the region where cell death occurs. We conclude that SGP-2 mRNA expression cannot be correlated with programmed cell death in neural or nonneural tissues. The results of this study as well as recently reported SGP-2 homologies indicate a possible role for this protein in secretion and lipid transport.

Aging↗
PubMed2001

Cardiomyocyte grafting for cardiac repair: graft cell death and anti-death strategies.

M. Zhang, D. Methot, V. Poppa, Y. Fujio, K. Walsh and C. E. Murry. Cardiomyocyte Grafting for Cardiac Repair: Graft Cell Death and Anti-Death Strategies. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (2001) 33, 907-921. Recent studies indicate that cardiomyocyte grafting forms new myocardium in injured hearts. It is unknown, however, whether physiologically significant amounts of new myocardium can be generated. Pilot experiments showed that death of grafted rat neonatal cardiomyocytes limited formation of new myocardium after acute cryoinjury. Time-course studies showed that, at 30 min after grafting, only 1.8(+/-0.4)% of graft cells were TUNEL-positive. At 1 day, however, TUNEL indices increased to 32.1(+/-3.5)% and remained high at 4 days, averaging 9.8(+/-3.8)%. By 7 days, TUNEL decreased to 1.0(+/-0.2)%. Electron microscopy revealed that dead cells had features of both irreversible ischemic injury and apoptosis. To test whether ischemia contributed to poor graft survival, grafts were placed into vascularized 2-week-old cardiac granulation tissue or normal myocardium. TUNEL indices were reduced by 53% and 86%, respectively. Adenoviral infection of graft cells with the cytoprotective kinase Akt, or constitutively active Akt, reduced TUNEL indices by 31% and 40%, respectively, compared to beta -gal-transfected controls. Neither treatment reached statistical significance compared to untreated controls, however. Heat shock reduced cardiomyocyte death in vitro in response to serum deprivation, glucose depletion, and viral activation of the Fas death pathway. When cardiomyocytes were heat shocked prior to grafting, graft cell death in vivo was reduced by 54% at day 1. Therefore, high levels of cardiomyocyte death occur for at least 4 days after grafting into injured hearts, in large part due to ischemia. Death can be limited by activating the Akt pathway and even more effectively by heat shock prior to transplantation.

Adenoviridae↗
PubMed2005

Dying at home or in an institution using death certificates to explore the factors associated with place of death.

INTRODUCTION: The knowledge of determinants of place of death is important for public health policy aimed at improving the quality of end-of-life care. METHODS: We investigated the influence of clinical, socio-demographic, residential and health care system factors on the place of death, using data from all 55,759 deaths in 2001 in Flanders (Belgium), gathered via official death certificates and data from anonymously linked health care statistics. A multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the associated factors (home versus hospital as dependent categories). RESULTS: Of all deaths in Flanders, 53.7% took place in hospital, 24.3% at home and 19.8% in a care home. The probability of home deaths varied by region, by rural or urban residence and by the hospital bed availability in the region and dying at home was less likely among those suffering from certain non-malignant chronic diseases, the less educated and those living alone. CONCLUSION: Although most people wish to die at home, most deaths in Flanders (Belgium) in 2001 did not take place there. The clinical, socio-demographic and residential factors found to be associated with the place of death could serve as focal points for a policy to facilitate dying in the place of choice, including at home.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The tumor suppressor RASSF1A and MAP-1 link death receptor signaling to Bax conformational change and cell death.

Tumor cells typically resist programmed cell death (apoptosis) induced by death receptors. Activated death receptors evoke Bax conformational change, cytochrome c release, and cell death. We report that the tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A is required for death receptor-induced Bax conformational change and apoptosis. TNFalpha or TRAIL stimulation induced recruitment of RASSF1A and MAP-1 to receptor complexes and promoted complex formation between RASSF1A and the BH3-like protein MAP-1. Normally, MAP-1 is inhibited by an intramolecular interaction. RASSF1A/MAP-1 binding relieved this inhibitory interaction, resulting in MAP-1 association with Bax. Deletion of the RASSF1A gene or short hairpin silencing of either RASSF1A or MAP-1 expression blocked MAP-1/Bax interaction, Bax conformational change and mitochondrial membrane insertion, cytochrome c release, and apoptosis in response to death receptors. Our findings identify RASSF1A and MAP-1 as important components between death receptors and the apoptotic machinery and reveal a potential link between tumor suppression and death receptor signaling.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMed1993

Unintentional suffocation by rebreathing: a death scene and physiologic investigation of a possible cause of sudden infant death.

As part of a 1-year study of sudden unexpected infant deaths in St. Louis, we performed both a specialized death scene investigation and, in selected cases, a physiologic reconstruction of the death scene with a rabbit model. Those cases in which the infant was found face down with nose and mouth covered by bedding were chosen for the physiologic testing; our goal was to assess the potential for lethal rebreathing of expired air. The physiologic studies reconstructed the infants' premortem ventilatory environment by using the head from an infant mannequin positioned on the actual bedding on which an infant had died and a rabbit breathing through the mannequin's nares. The specialized scene investigation was carried out in 31 of 32 deaths from sudden infant death syndrome, diagnosed by the usual methods. Of 31 infants, eight died with their faces downward and covered by bedding, and the bedding was obtained for further study in seven of eight cases. The bedding had low resistance to airflow (6.25 to 22.6 cm H2O/L per second), and caused considerable rebreathing that was lethal to the rabbits in five of seven cases. We conclude that items of bedding in common use are capable of causing lethal rebreathing by prone-sleeping infants whose nose and mouth become covered; suffocation by rebreathing was the probable mechanism of death in a substantial number of these deaths that had been attributed to sudden infant death syndrome.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Objective measurements of nicotine exposure in victims of sudden infant death syndrome and in other unexpected child deaths.

OBJECTIVE: Self-reported maternal smoking is associated with a dose-related-increase in the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The aim of this study was to measure objectively whether victims of SIDS are more exposed to tobacco smoke before death than infants who die unexpectedly of other causes. DESIGN: Continine levels in pericardial fluid were used as an indicator of exposure. Levels > 5 ng/mL indicated significant exposure, and levels > 20 ng/mL indicated heavy exposure. Samples were obtained from all sudden deaths in children < 7 years of age that occurred from 1990 through 1993 in southeastern Norway. Twenty four infants died of SIDS, 12 infants of infections, and 9 of accidents (median age 4.5, 5, and 35 months, respectively). RESULTS: Compared with the age-matched infectious deaths, a significantly higher proportion of victims of SIDS had been significantly (92% vs 67%) or heavily exposed (25% vs 0%) to nicotine, (P < .05). Median cotinine levels in infants with SIDS, 15.8 ng/mL, were significantly higher than in infants who had infectious deaths 7.1 ng/mL (P < .003) but were comparable to those of accident victims (12.9 ng/mL, not significant). CONCLUSIONS: Victims of SIDS are more often and more heavily exposed to tobacco smoke doses before death than are infants who have sudden infectious deaths. Accidental death in infancy and childhood is often associated with a significant exposure to nicotine.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Evidence for a function of death-receptor-related, death-domain-containing proteins in anoikis.

Normal epithelial cells undergo apoptosis if integrinmediated matrix contacts are lost, in a process termed 'anoikis'. Anoikis prevents shed epithelial cells from colonizing elsewhere, and is thus essential for maintaining appropriate tissue organisation. Aberrant oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes can cause resistance to anoikis, thereby contributing substantially to malignancy. Apoptosis is mediated by a well-ordered signaling cascade, which involves activation of intracellular proteases known as caspases. However, the mechanism by which the caspase cascade is initiated following cell-matrix detachment is unknown. We have hypothesized that death receptor activation might be involved in anoikis. To test this hypothesis, we developed a transient assay for anoikis and used it to assay the effects of proteins that block the function of domains found within death receptors known as death domains. In this assay, silencer of death domains (SODD) and dominant-negative FAS-associated death domain protein (FADD) efficiently inhibited anoikis in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. The protective activity of SODD required its BAG domain, which interacts with the heat shock proteins hsp70 and hsc70, and inhibits the chaperone activity of the latter. Both caspase 8, which physically associates with death receptors, and cleavage of the caspase-8 substrate BID, were activated by cell-matrix detachment. These findings indicate a role for death receptors or proteins with related death domains in triggering anoikis.

Animals↗