Background: This document provides evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the management of adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia.Methods: A multidisciplinary panel conducted pra...

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Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Community-acquired Pneumonia. An Official Clinical Practice Guideline of the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America

European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015

Invasive "body-opening" autopsy represents the traditional means of postmortem investigation in humans. However, modern cross-sectional imaging techniques can supplement and may even partially replace traditional autopsy. Computed tomography (CT) is the imaging modality of choice for two- and three-dimensional documentation and analysis of autopsy findings including fracture systems, pathologic gas collections (eg, air embolism, subcutaneous emphysema after trauma, hyperbaric trauma, decomposition effects), and gross tissue injury. Various postprocessing techniques can provide strong forensic evidence for use in legal proceedings. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has had a greater impact in demonstrating soft-tissue injury, organ trauma, and nontraumatic conditions. However, the differences in morphologic features and signal intensity characteristics seen at antemortem versus postmortem MR imaging have not yet been studied systematically. The documentation and analysis of postmortem findings with CT and MR imaging and postprocessing techniques ("virtopsy") is investigator independent, objective, and noninvasive and will lead to qualitative improvements in forensic pathologic investigation. Future applications of this approach include the assessment of morbidity and mortality in the general population and, perhaps, routine screening of bodies prior to burial.

https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/pdf/10.1148/rg.265065001

VIRTOPSY: Minimally Invasive, Imaging-guided Virtual Autopsy

The Brain and Body Donation Program (BBDP) at Banner Sun Health Research Institute (http://www.brainandbodydonationprogram.org) started in 1987 with brain-only donations and currently has banked more than 1600 brains. More than 430 whole-body donations have been received since this service was commenced in 2005. The collective academic output of the BBDP is now described as the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders (AZSAND). Most BBDP subjects are enrolled as cognitively normal volunteers residing in the retirement communities of metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Specific recruitment efforts are also directed at subjects with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer. The median age at death is 82. Subjects receive standardized general medical, neurological, neuropsychological and movement disorders assessments during life and more than 90% receive full pathological examinations by medically licensed pathologists after death. The Program has been funded through a combination of internal, federal and state of Arizona grants as well as user fees and pharmaceutical industry collaborations. Subsets of the Program are utilized by the US National Institute on Aging Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center and the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Brain and Tissue Resource for Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. Substantial funding has also been received from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The Program has made rapid autopsy a priority, with a 3.0-hour median post-mortem interval for the entire collection. The median RNA Integrity Number (RIN) for frozen brain and body tissue is 8.9 and 7.4, respectively. More than 2500 tissue requests have been served and currently about 200 are served annually. These requests have been made by more than 400 investigators located in 32 US states and 15 countries. Tissue from the BBDP has contributed to more than 350 publications and more than 200 grant-funded projects.

Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders and Brain and Body Donation Program

Post-mortem radiology--a new sub-speciality?

Non-traumatic postmortem computed tomographic (PMCT) findings of the lung.

Background and current status of postmortem imaging in Japan: short history of "Autopsy imaging (Ai)".

Postmortem pulmonary edema: A comparison between immediate and delayed postmortem computed tomography

Purpose
We investigated and identified postmortem changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain to provide accurate diagnostic guidelines.

Characteristic signal intensity changes on postmortem magnetic resonance imaging of the brain

The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) in detecting causes of sudden death in infants and children. Our subjects were 15 nontraumatically deceased patients (nine boys and six girls, ranging in age from 20 days after birth to 12 years old, mean age 1.6 years), who had been in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest on arrival at our hospital. PMCT was performed within 2 h after certification of death: head (15 cases), chest (11 cases), and abdomen (12 cases). Blood was collected from 11 of the patients at the time of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. An autopsy was conducted on two. PMCT did not show any traumatic changes indicating child abuse. It was difficult to presume the cause of death with PMCT alone, but the cause of death in 14 of 15 cases could be presumed by combining information from their medical history, clinical course before death, PMCT findings, laboratory data, and bacterial culture. The remaining subject was classified as cause unknown. The causes of sudden death in infants and children were detected at a high rate when we comprehensively investigated the PMCT and other examination findings.

Seiji Shiotani

Papers

Non-traumatic postmortem computed tomographic (PMCT) findings of the lung.

Background and current status of postmortem imaging in Japan: short history of "Autopsy imaging (Ai)".

Postmortem pulmonary edema: A comparison between immediate and delayed postmortem computed tomography

Characteristic signal intensity changes on postmortem magnetic resonance imaging of the brain

Postmortem computed tomography for detecting causes of sudden death in infants and children: retrospective review of cases.