Late cardiac arrhythmias after blunt chest trauma.

OBJECTIVE: Case reports of two patients who developed fatal cardiac arrhythmias several days after blunt chest trauma. DESIGN: Case reports. SETTING: Surgical intensive care unit of a university hospital. PATIENTS: A 23-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl with blunt chest trauma and multiple further injuries following car crashes were transferred to our institution. Although ECG on admission was normal, both patients developed fatal cardiac arrhythmias after 6 and 4 days, respectively. In both patients, post-mortem analysis confirmed myocardial contusion without coronary artery lesions. Histological findings included severe interstitial oedema, haemorrhages and infiltration of lymphocytes and neutrophils, fresh myocardial necrosis and fatty degeneration. CONCLUSION: Blunt chest trauma with myocardial contusion may lead to fatal cardiac arrhythmias even after several days, particularly when other severe injuries are present. Thus, a normal ECG on admission and absence of cardiac arrhythmias during the first 24 h of intensive care treatment do not necessarily exclude the occurrence of life-threatening arrhythmias in the further course.

[Initial experiences with the "0.8 promille regulation in Thüringen]. / Erste Erfahrungen mit der "0.8-Promille"-Regelung in Thüringen.

Blood samples sent in for analysis in 1992 and 1993 showed an increase in the BAC values of offenders in the "driving under the influence" category. At the same time it was found that, proportionally, the number of people whose BAC was below 0.8% had dropped. The same trend could be observed in the "road accident" category. This trend continued throughout 1994. One can therefore assume that the introduction of the "0.8% law" in eastern Germany has brought with it an increase in the level of intoxication of people driving under the influence of alcohol.

[Chromosome analysis for determining paternity using the AMBA/R-Chro-H image evaluation system]. / Chromosomenanalyse zur Vaterschaftsfeststellung mit dem Bildauswertesystem AMBA/R-Chro-H.

A version of the software package AMBA/R-CHRO developed by the Institute of Breeding Research Quedlinburg and by the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, which is suited for the evaluation of banded human chromosomes, is presented. The parameter which are required for paternity diagnostics (absolute length of the chromosomes, absolute and relative length of the heterochromatin block near the centromere) were automatic registrated and calculated. The way of presenting the chromosomes of interest (A 1, C 9, E 16, Y), their grey-value profiles and their schematic representation make understanding, especially for nonexpert clients, easy. The present software package rationalizes work in the cytogenetic laboratory by reducing objectively and personally conditioned error sources. In addition to this, considerable saving in time is reached. The software package for the interactive automatic microscope image analysis primary developed for using in analysis of vegetable chromosomes finds a new range of application in the field of settlement of paternity cases.