Retrospective Analysis of 291 Cases of Medical Malpractice Involving Death / 法医学杂志

Objective To study the medical malpractice cases involving death, and discuss the identification ideas and methods of medical malpractice cases. Methods A total of 291 medical malpractice cases involving death accepted and settled from January 2012 to December 2017 at the Judicial Appraisal Center of Southern Medical University were collected. Based on the age, gender, hospital level, clinical department, whether or not autopsy was performed, cause of death, cause of medical mistakes, causality and causative potency of the appraised person, statistical analysis was made. Results There were more males than females in medical malpractice cases involving death. Mostly young adults or children were involved in these cases. The number of cases involving tertiary hospitals was the highest; among the clinical departments, the internal medicine department had the largest number of cases, followed by surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, etc. Autopsy rate has a trend of increasing year by year. Most patients die from the natural outcomes of their disease or ineffective treatment. Most hospitals have certain medical mistakes, and have an indirect correlation with the patient's death, mainly slight factors. Conclusion Judicial appraisal of medical malpractice should follow the principle of "one-effect and multi-cause", and comprehensively consider various factors such as, the diseases and constitution of the patient, natural outcomes of the diseases, the current medical technology and the level of diagnosis and treatment of the hospital, etc.

Primary investigation of methamphetamine-induced toxicity in PC12 cells / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the mechanism of methamphetamine (METH)-induced toxicity in PC12 cells.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>PC12 cells were treated with METH for 24 h at the doses of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, or 2.5 mmol/L. The morphological changes of the cells were observed under inverted microscope after the treatment. MTT assay and flow cytometry were used to assess the cell viability and apoptotic rates, respectively, and the level of nitric oxide (NO) was measured by enzyme reduction method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The PC12 cells exposed to METH were morphologically featured by cell shrinkage, dendrite disruption and disappearance of cell reticular formation. METH exposure caused a dose-dependent reduction in the cell viability (P<0.01), resulting in also increased cell apoptotic rate and significant elevation of NO in the cell culture supernatant (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>METH exposure induces cytotoxicity and injury of differentiated PC12 cells, leading to decreased cell viability and increased cell apoptosis and NO level. Cell apoptosis and excessive NO production are involved in METH-induced cytotoxicity.</p>