Clinical and Pathological Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Disease Outbreaks in Farmed Mink (Neovison vison)

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, caused respiratory disease outbreaks with increased mortality in 4 mink farms in the Netherlands. The most striking postmortem finding was an acute interstitial pneumonia, which was found in nearly all examined mink that died at the peak of the outbreaks. Acute alveolar damage was a consistent histopathological finding in mink that died with pneumonia. SARS-CoV-2 infections were confirmed by detection of viral RNA in throat swabs and by immunohistochemical detection of viral antigen in nasal conchae, trachea, and lung. Clinically, the outbreaks lasted for about 4 weeks but some animals were still polymerase chain reaction–positive for SARS-CoV-2 in throat swabs after clinical signs had disappeared. This is the first report of the clinical and pathological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in mink farms.

PROFILE OF MEDICO-LEGAL DEATHS DUE TO DROWNING – A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Death due to drowning is almost frequent in India, so it is but natural that, medico-legal expertise is called upon for investigations. Determining the cause of death in bodies found in water is quite challenging, which can be done by thorough investigation and complete autopsy by forensic pathologist. The present study was a retrospective, which was conducted for one year during June 2016 to May 2017 considering upon history and postmortem finding of the deceased. The maximum drowning cases were of male sex (74.73%), with commonest affected age group being 21-30 years (30.64%). Most of the drowning cases were accidental (55.91%) in nature and occurred commonly in water canal (55.37%), and rivers (25.26%). The most significant findings noted on autopsy were decomposition and animal bites (gnawing effects) (54.83%) and presence of heavy, voluminous, edematous and congested lungs with c/s showing copious frothy fluid (52.15%).

PROFILE OF MEDICO-LEGAL DEATHS DUE TO DROWNING – A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY.

Death due to drowning is almost frequent in India, so it is but natural that, medico-legal expertise is called upon for investigations. Determining the cause of death in bodies found in water is quite challenging, which can be done by thorough investigation and complete autopsy by forensic pathologist. The present study was a retrospective, which was conducted for one year during June 2016 to May 2017 considering upon history and postmortem finding of the deceased. The maximum drowning cases were of male sex (74.73%), with commonest affected age group being 21-30 years (30.64%). Most of the drowning cases were accidental (55.91%) in nature and occurred commonly in water canal (55.37%), and rivers (25.26%). The most significant findings noted on autopsy were decomposition and animal bites (gnawing effects) (54.83%) and presence of heavy, voluminous, edematous and congested lungs with c/s showing copious frothy fluid (52.15%).

Intravital and postmortem diagnostics of myocardial hypertrophy of the left ventricle:identity or convention?

The aim of the study is to assess the compliance of the results of electrocardiographic (ECG) and echocardiographic diagnostic methods of hypertrophy of left ventricular myocardium (LVH) with the postmortem finding of measurement of left ventricular myocardium mass (LVM). Materials and methods. We examined the data of intravital study of anthropometric measurements [age, height, weight, body mass index (BMI)], instrumental results [12-lead ECG, EchoCG], as well as the postmortem finding (direct measurement of LVM at autopsy) in 15 patients of general therapy department. While analyzing ECG we studied as conventional ECG criteria for the detection of LVH as well as the author's own criteria based on two models (regression and discriminant analyses), including voltage, sex and age criteria. Echocardiographic diagnostic method used to calculate LVM (according to ASE formula) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Postmortem finding of LVM was carried out according to the standard measurement method. According to the absence of the single conventional postmortem finding of measurement of LVH, we considered three different variants of the postmortem finding of LVH: the criterion of K. Bove et al. (CB); the criterion of A.M. Lifshitz, also called ventricular index (VI) and the criterion of P. Casale - the left ventricular mass index at autopsy (LVMI). Results and discussion. Conventional ECG criteria for the detection of LVH showed high specificity (71-100%) using any method of the postmortem finding of measurement, but were characterized by extremely low sensitivity (0-37.5%). Their overall diagnostic accuracy was higher on using K. Bove or A.M. Lifshitz criteria (40-66.7%) and low - on using the criterion of P. Casale (13.3-40%). The author's ECG criteria were less specificity (50-100%) and had higher sensitivity (54-75%), and their diagnostic accuracy remained higher and showed small dependence on the method of the postmortem finding of measurement of LVH (60-66.7%). Conclusion. Usually the ECG criteria to diagnose left ventricular hypertrophy were expectedly showed low sensitivity using any method of the postmortem finding of measurement. Meanwhile, the author's own ECG criteria associated with the most sensitive electrocardiographic characteristics to LVH and sex and age-specific indexes of the examined patients exceeded the conventional ECG criteria in sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy.

Red eyes in the necropsy floor: twenty cases of hyphema in dogs and cats

Hyphema (hemorrhage within the anterior chamber of the eye) can be caused by several mechanisms and can easily be detected in routine ophthalmic or necroscopic examination as discolored red eye(s). The purpose of this study is to report the cause of hyphema diagnosed as a postmortem finding in dogs and cats. Twenty cases, 14 dogs and six cats of several ages and breeds and of both sexes were included in the study. Hyphema presented as a unilateral (14 cases out of 20) or bilateral (6/20) disorder in dogs and cats and extension of hemorrhage varied from minimal to diffuse. Hyphema was secondary to systemic disease (15/20) or occurred as a primary ocular lesion (5/20) in four dogs and one cat. Primary hyphema was always unilateral. In four of these cases, the cause of hyphema was trauma and remaining case was caused by phacoclastic uveitis in a dog with bilateral hypermature cataract. Various causes of bleeding disorders were found related to secondary hyphema: in decreasing order of frequency, they included vasculitis (8/15), systemic hypertension (5/15), and acquired coagulopathies (2/15). Vasculitis due to feline infectious peritonitis accounted for half of the cases (n=3) of systemic hyphema in cats. The various pathological aspects and pathogenesis of hyphema in dogs and cats are described and discussed.

....Beginning to See the Light

In March 1952, Mollison and Walker1 reported the results of their prospective, randomized, controlled trial on the effect of exchange transfusion v simple transfusion in infants with severe erythroblastosis fetalis. They showed that exchange transfusion led to significantly lower mortality and a much lower incidence of fatal kernicterus. In the interim, numerous published studies have examined the relation between serum bilirubin levels in the neonatal period and the postmortem finding of kernicterus or the presence of later, clinical, bilirubin encephalopathy. With few exceptions, the design of these studies has made interpretation of their results hazardous, if not nugatory.2 We now have a study from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)3 in which the population is sufficiently large and the study design sufficiently rigorous to permit actual, if tentative, conclusions concerning the effect of a different intervention (phototherapy) upon the immediate and later outcome of jaundiced newborn infants.