Examination of postmortem changes in the lungs, trachea, and bronchi in a rat model imaged with small-animal computed tomography.

Objectives: As less autopsies are performed, the need for postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) as an alternative is increasing. It is important to know how postmortem changes over time are reflected on CT, in order to improve the diagnostic capability of PMCT and replace forensic pathology evaluations such as time of death estimation. Methods: In this study, we examined temporal changes on postmortem chest CT images of a rat model. After acquiring antemortem images under isoflurane inhalation anesthesia, the rats were euthanized with a rapid intravenous injection of anesthetics. From immediately after death to 48 hours postmortem, chest images were acquired using small-animal CT. The 3D images were then evaluated on a workstation to measure the antemortem and postmortem air content in the lungs, trachea, and bronchi over time. Results: The air content in the lungs decreased, but the air content of the trachea and bronchi temporarily increased 1-12 hours postmortem, then decreased at 48 hours postmortem. Therefore, the measurement of trachea and bronchi volumes on PMCT could be an objective way to estimate the time of death. Conclusions: While the air content of the lungs decreased, the volume of the trachea and bronchi temporarily increased after death, indicating the potential to use such measurements to estimate time of death.

Factors associated with successful pregnancy in women of late reproductive age with uterine fibroids who undergo embryo cryopreservation before surgery.

AIM: The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with successful pregnancy in women of late reproductive age with uterine fibroids who undergo embryo cryopreservation before surgery (ECBS). METHODS: Patients who underwent in vitro fertilization treatment with controlled ovarian stimulation from November 2010 to January 2017 in our university hospital were included. Twenty-two patients older than 35 years of age at the first visit with cavity-distorting uterine fibroids underwent ECBS, a three-step therapeutic approach consisting of oocyte pick-up, myomectomy and embryo transfer (ET), which are performed in this order. We retrospectively calculated the pregnancy rate and determined the factors associated with successful pregnancy. RESULTS: The mean age at ET of the patients who underwent ECBS was 40.9 years, with a pregnancy rate per ET of 36.8% (21/57). Of 22 patients, 10 (45.5%) successfully continued pregnancy beyond 12 weeks of gestation (ongoing pregnancy). An ongoing pregnancy was observed only among the patients with more than three frozen embryos. The ongoing pregnancy rates of patients with ≤five fibroids and ≤5 cm in the maximal diameter were significantly higher compared to the respective remaining group (90.0% vs 14.3% and 87.5% vs 33.3%). CONCLUSION: ECBS is an effective strategy for infertile women of late reproductive age with cavity-distorting uterine fibroids, especially when it is applied to the patients who can freeze at least three embryos before myomectomy, with five or less fibroids smaller than 5 cm in the maximal diameter.

Rare alleles of the ABO blood group system in two European populations.

We performed genotyping of the ABO system in Italian and Israeli population samples. The nucleotides at 11 positions, nts 261, 297, 467, 526, 646, 681, 703, 796, 802, 803 and 1060, were analyzed by PCR-RFLP, PCR-SSP and PCR direct sequencing methods. We found three rare ABO alleles besides the common alleles (*)A1(Pro) (=(*)A101), (*)A2(Leu) (=(*)A201), (*)B (=(*)B101), (*)O(T) (=(*)O01), (*)O(A) (=(*)O02) and (*)O2 (=(*)O03), but did not detect ( *)A1(Leu) (=( *)A102) which is a common allele in Asians. The rare alleles were tentatively named (*)Ov1, (*)Ov2, and (*)Bv. As ( *)Bv has been found in two Japanese individuals and (*)O2 is not a rare ABO allele in Europeans, not only (*)O2 but also the (*)Ov1 and (*)Ov2 alleles may be characteristic of European populations.

Typing of the nt343C>T (R95X) allele of the C9 gene by PCR-SSP and the allele frequency of R95X in five ethnic populations.

One of the alleles which leads to ninth component of complement deficiency (C9D) is R95X (nt343C>T), which is present in most cases of C9D in Japan. In this study, we carried out nt343C>T typing by the method of polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP), and showed the frequency of the R95X allele in German, Italian, Thai, Korean and Chinese populations. We did not find the R95X allele in the German or Italian populations. The allele frequency of R95X in the three Asian populations is as follows: Thais 0.019, Koreans 0.008, and Chinese 0.002. As the allele frequency in the Japanese population is 0.036, the results provide supporting evidence that the R95X is an allele characteristic of Japanese.

Haplotypes in the 5'-upstream region, exons 3 and 4, and introns 2 and 3 of the ABO blood group gene.

We previously described two haplotypes named the ABORR*L-associated and ABORR*S-associated haplotypes in the 5'-upstream region of the ABO blood group gene. Here we studied polymorphisms in exons (Exs) 3 and 4 and introns (Ints) 2 and 3 of the ABO gene, and analyzed the haplotypes in those Exs, Ints, and the 5'-upstream region. Two haplotypes (at Int2nt108-Int2nt362-Int2nt369-Int2nt539-Ex3nt106-Int3nt1178-Int3nt1357-Ex4nt188-Ex4nt189) were deduced to be (1) A-C-C-C-T-C-T-A-T, which was linked with ABORR*L and ABO*O(A), and (2) A-C-C-C-G-T-C-G-C, G-C-C-C-G-T-C-G-C, and A-T-G-A-G-T-C-G-C, which were linked with ABORR*S and the other common ABO alleles. This finding also shows the existence of two major lineages of the Japanese ABO alleles.