Aims Cardiac dysfunction is reported after severe perinatal asphyxia. We hypothesized that maternal propofol anaesthesia during emergency caesarean section diminished cardiac injury in preterm fetuses exposed to global severe asphyxia in utero in comparison to isoflurane anesthesia. We tested if propofol decreased the activity of pro-apoptotic caspase-3 by activating the anti-apoptotic AKT kina...

Perinatal asphyxia is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality in India. In addition to hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and neurological deficits, there is evidence of multi-system insult (l). Hepatic dysfunction is caused by redistributing cardiac output away from nonvital viscera to the heart, brain and adrenal glands (2). The present study was carried out to determine the extent of live...

Despite the important advances in perinatal care in the past decades, asphyxia remains a severe condition leading to significant mortality and morbidity. Perinatal asphyxia has an incidence of 1 to 6 per 1,000 live full-term births, and represents the third most common cause of neonatal death (23%) after preterm birth (28%) and severe infections (26%). Many preconceptional, antepartum and intra...

1. To improve general knowledge regarding idiopathic congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), with recognition that because of the rarity of CCHS, many practitioners have not seen a case and therefore do not make the diagnosis in a timely manner. 2. To minimize time delays between onset of clinical symptoms and the diagnosis of CCHS, thereby decreasing initial health care costs and m...

DC and AC receptor potentials of cochlear inner hair cells in response to tone bursts of various frequencies and intensities were continuously measured during and following periods of transient asphyxia. The effects of asphyxia were most pronounced for low sound pressure level (SPL) acoustic stimuli near the characteristic frequency (CF) of the inner hair cell, leading to vulnerability of the '...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of World Health Organisation (WHO) verbal autopsy tool in determining major causes of neonatal deaths. METHODS From a tertiary care hospital and a government multispecialty hospital, the attending paediatricians ascertained a clinical cause of death for 371 neonatal deaths. Trained field workers conducted verbal autopsy (VA) inte...

A total of seven detailed death investigations is reported where death occurred while being restrained by a belt or a protective cover. The casualties were elderly persons who mostly showed considerable pre-existing diseases, especially dementia and coronary atherosclerosis. Concerning the cause of death, three groups were differentiated: (I) mechanical asphyxia from strangulation. (II) Mechani...

AIM To evaluate neonatal resuscitation of infants born with severe asphyxia. METHOD All case records of the 472 claims for financial compensation due to suspected medical malpractice in conjunction with childbirth in Sweden between 1990 and 2005 were scrutinized. Inclusion criteria were: gestational age > or =33 completed weeks, planned vaginal onset of delivery, a reactive CTG at onset of la...

BACKGROUND Avalanches are a significant cause of winter recreational fatalities in mountain regions. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contributions of trauma and asphyxia to avalanche deaths. METHODS We reviewed all avalanche fatalities between 1984 and 2005 that had been investigated by the offices of the British Columbia Coroners Service and the Chief Medical Examiner...

OBJECTIVES To present a series of cases of survivors and non-survivors of traumatic asphyxia from a single mass casualty incident in Zimbabwe and a review of the literature. DESIGN Descriptive case review. SETTING Parirenyatwa Hospital is a tertiary referral 1 000 bed teaching hospital in Zimbabwe. RESULTS Survivors (n = 4) displayed the classic signs of traumatic asphyxia of conjunctival...