Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, June 18, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, June 25, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, July 9, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, July 2, 2010

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Sensitivity and specificity of NT-proBNP to detect heart failure at post mortem examination.

NT-proBNP, a marker of cardiac failure, has been shown to be stable in post mortem samples. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of NT-proBNP to detect heart failure in the forensic setting. One hundred sixty-eight consecutive autopsies were included in the study. NT-proBNP blood concentrations were measured using a chemiluminescent immunoassay kit. Cardiac failure was assessed by three independent forensic experts using macro- and microscopic findings complemented by information about the circumstances of body discovery and the known medical story. Area under the receiving operator curve was of 65.4% (CI 95%, from 57.1 to 73.7). Using a standard cut-off value of >220 pg/mL for NT-proBNP blood concentration, heart failure was detected with a sensitivity of 50.7% and a specificity of 72.6%. NT-proBNP vitreous humor values were well correlated to the ones measured in blood (r (2) = 0.658). Our results showed that NT-proBNP can corroborate the pathological findings in cases of natural death related to heart failure, thus, keeping its diagnostic properties passing from the ante mortem to the post mortem setting. Therefore, biologically inactive polypeptides like NT-proBNP seem to be stable enough to be used in forensic medicine as markers of cardiac failure, taking into account the sensitivity and specificity of the test.

Discordant increases in CD4+ T cells in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients experiencing virologic treatment failure: role of changes in thymic output and T cell death.

Some patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who are experiencing antiretroviral treatment failure have persistent improvement in CD4+ T cell counts despite high plasma viremia. To explore the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon, 2 parameters influencing the dynamics of CD4+ T cells were evaluated: death of mature CD4+ T cells and replenishment of the CD4+ T cell pool by the thymus. The improvement in CD4+ T cells observed in patients with treatment failure was not correlated with spontaneous, Fas ligand-induced, or activation-induced T cell death. In contrast, a significant correlation between the improvement in CD4+ T cell counts and thymic output, as assessed by measurement of T cell receptor excision circles, was observed. These observations suggest that increased thymic output contributes to the dissociation between CD4+ T cell counts and viremia in patients failing antiretroviral therapy and support a model in which drug-resistant HIV strains may have reduced replication rates and pathogenicity in the thymus.

Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, July 16, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, July 23, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, July 30, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, August 6, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, August 13, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, August 20, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, August 27, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, September 10, 2010

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Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities for Week Ending, September 17, 2010

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