EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL
MAY 1, 2007
APS Contact
Christine Guilfoy
Office: (301) 634-7253
cguilfoy@the-aps.org
Newsroom Opens at 12:00 p.m.
Saturday April 28
APS Newsroom
East Registration Area
Washington Convention Center
APS Press Room: (202) 249-4174
Forensic Pathologists Tell
Physiologists What They Know About Death and What Puzzles Them
Washington — When four forensic pathologists
tell physiologists about the deaths that puzzle them, they will do so with
the hope of sparking laboratory research to help define the cause of these
deaths and prevent more of them.
The four pathologists, all medical examiners and
professors, will present their insights, as well as uncertainties, about
deaths that happen as struggling individuals are arrested, as infants sleep
in their cribs, and following years of drug abuse. By sharing these
experiences with physiologists, the medical examiners hope to spur research
to clarify how these deaths occur, how to identify them during autopsy, and
how to prevent them.
The Physiology in Focus program, “Forensic
Medicine,” will take place at the 120th annual meeting of
The American Physiological Society
(APS), which coincides with
Experimental Biology 2007, a conference expected to attract
12,000 scientists from across the globe. The session will take place at 8
a.m., Tuesday, May 1 in Ballroom B of the Washington Convention Center.
Cause of death can be
murky
“The portrayals of medical examiners on television and
in movies and books follow the requirements of dramatic construction,” noted
Gregory G. Davis, M.D., who will lead the session. In these stories, medical
examiners, for instance, nail down the precise cause of death and the exact
time. Or they pinpoint the number of pills a person took before dying of an
overdose. Such precise pronouncements are often not possible for the real
life medical examiner.
In real life, the cause of death may not be entirely
clear, and this is especially difficult for families when the deceased is
young, said Davis, who is an associate professor at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham and associate Jefferson County coroner and medical
examiner. One of the hardest things Davis must do is tell a family he does
not know why their child died, even after performing an autopsy.
The speakers at the Forensic Medicine symposium and the
cases they will discuss are as follows:
Deaths associated with
police restraint or force
J. Keith Pinckard, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant
professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and
Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science, both in Dallas, will discuss
sudden deaths that occur when police restrain or use force to subdue an
individual who may be violent or highly agitated, as in the case of
cocaine-induced agitated delirium.
These deaths are likely due to a combination of the
restraint and force used and the individual’s physiological condition.
Restraints include choke holds, carotid sleeper holds and hog-tying. Force
includes the use of Tasers, a device to zap uncooperative individuals with
electrical pulses of high voltage and low amperage. In some cases, deaths
have occurred after both restraint and force were used together and in other
cases when either restraint or force was used.
Research is needed to help explain what factors
contributed to these sudden deaths. It is likely they are due to a complex
interaction of factors such as intoxication, mental illness, or health
status, combined with a violent, even if brief, struggle.
Deaths due to asphyxia
Amy C. Gruszecki, D.O., an assistant professor
at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Southwestern
Institute of Forensic Science, both in Dallas, will discuss sudden deaths
due to asphyxia, including drowning, suicide by hanging and sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS).
After researchers noticed that infants who sleep on
their backs had much lower death rates than those whose parents placed them
on their stomachs, pediatricians recommended infants sleep on their backs.
SIDS deaths dropped 40 percent. However, SIDS remains a problem and little
is known about why it strikes some children and not others. In at least some
cases, research has already shown that some infants have immature
development of nerve pathways in their brains. More research is needed to be
able to identify SIDS at autopsy and to prevent more of these deaths.
Deaths associated with
drug abuse
People who have a history of chronic abuse of cocaine
and opiate drugs have an increased risk of dying, even when they have no
drugs in their system, noted Dr. Davis, who will lead this
discussion. Research shows that chronic cocaine use increases the risk of
blood clots, hardening of the arteries, and thickening of the heart muscle,
among other effects. More research could help identify the physiological
changes that could lead to a sudden death so that these deaths could be
identified when they happen and possibly be prevented.
Pharmacogenomics
Jeffrey M. Jentzen, M.D., of the Milwaukee
County Medical Examiner’s office and a professor at the Medical College of
Wisconsin, also in Milwaukee, will look at genetic variations accounting for
differences in metabolic rate among individuals. Because people metabolize
pills at different rates, for example, medical examiners are unable to
precisely determine at autopsy how many pills the victim took.
When prescribing drugs, it is important for the doctor
to know if the patient is a slow metabolizer, because these patients may
inadvertently overdose on drugs such as methadone, which remains in the body
for a relatively long time. Recent research suggests that up to 60 percent
of methadone deaths may be related to genetic variations that result in
varied metabolic rates. Pharmacogenomic testing at autopsy could become a
major tool in explaining some of these sudden deaths.
To
schedule an interview with one of the presenters, please e-mail
Christine Guilfoy or call her at (301) 634-7253, prior to
April 28. During the conference, please call the APS press room at (202)
249-4174.
Please
click here for a summary of the APS program at Experimental Biology
2007.
Physiology
is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create
health or disease. The American Physiological Society has been an
integral part of this scientific discovery process since it was established
in 1887.
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