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There is no nationwide necropsy database of animals in Japan, and most of the records are available from the postwar period. To clarify the chronological transition of animal necropsy cases in Tokyo, Japan, the records accumulated in The University of Tokyo from 1902 were investigated. Of necropsy records on paper or electronic from 1902 to 2021 kept at the Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology, The University of Tokyo, totally 3,137 cases including 572 in 1903-1914 (the Meiji-Taisho period), 1,258 in 1956-1969 (the Showa period) and 1,307 in 2006-2020 (the Heisei-Reiwa period), respectively, were examined for species, breed, age and pathological diagnosis. Dogs (44.6%) and horses (34.8%) in the Meiji-Taisho period, dogs (62.9%) and cats (17.3%) in the Showa period, and dogs (46.0%), cats (26.1%) and exotic animals (20.5%) in the Heisei-Reiwa period were the most necropsied animal species. With the passage of time, the number of animal species increased, and the breeds of dogs and cats came to be more various. The median ages of death were 2 years, 3 years and 10 years old in dogs in the Meiji-Taisho, Showa and Heisei-Reiwa periods, respectively, and 2 years and 10 years old in cats in the Showa and Heisei-Reiwa periods, respectively. Viral, bacterial and parasitic infections were decreased, and inversely tumor cases increased due to the prolonged lifespan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autoimmune diseases are not always recognized as urgent health issues, despite a worldwide prevalence of 4%-5%. Most estimates come from high-income countries, as low- and middle-income countries face more issues of under-reporting. Despite this and the lack of recognition under current reporting practices, the role these diseases play in mortality must be acknowledged. In particular, considering multiple causes of death as opposed to a single cause of death results in a 1.5-4.2-fold increase in deaths classified as relating to autoimmune diseases, evidence of their share in overall mortality burden, a factor important for patient care and healthcare policy decision making. However, formulating such policies and programs for timely, appropriate diagnoses and care is stymied in low- and middle-income countries by the shortage of methodologically sound studies on morality from systemic autoimmune diseases. This limitation exacerbates inequalities and health gaps among patients in different countries and localities. Multiple cause-of-death methodology has been validated for research on other diseases and demonstrates the mortality burden of these illnesses in countries where traditional methodological approaches, primarily based on prospective cohort studies, are not feasible. Studying mortality from systemic autoimmune diseases by analyzing multiple causes of death with data from national mortality registries is a low-cost alternative to traditional mortality analysis. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate and defend the usefulness of this approach to estimate mortality burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black esophagus is a rare medical condition, characterized by a circumferential blackish discoloration of the distal part of the esophageal mucosa, abruptly ending at the gastroesophageal junction. The etiology is multifactorial since patients suffer from multiple comorbidities. While the mortality rate specifically linked to black esophagus is only around 6%, the mortality rate linked to the underlying comorbidities amounts to 32%. A series of five cases is provided in which black esophagus was an unexpected discovery at autopsy. Black esophagus is generally considered being a challenge to the forensic pathologist. There are often no other major gross anomalies found at autopsy and information about the patient's medical history is not always available, which complicates a correct assessment. We present a review of the literature on black esophagus, limited to reports on deceased patients. The reviewed publications are divided into autopsy and endoscopy series to correctly compare the causes of death. The aim of this review is to identify a possible divergence in causes of death in autopsy and endoscopy series and additionally to analyze the causes of these differences to enable better assessment and interpretation of black esophagus at forensic autopsies. This paper emphasizes the importance of a minimal knowledge of the victim's comorbidities and medical record and the use of toxicology and postmortem biochemistry analysis as a valuable tool in investigating the cause of death in the setting of black esophagus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Population Studies is the property of Union for African Population Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cadernos de Saude Publica is the property of Escola Nacional de Saude Publica Sergio Arouca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Verbal autopsy procedures are widely used for estimating cause-specific mortality in areas without medical death certification. Data on symptoms reported by caregivers along with the cause of death are collected from a medical facility, and the cause-of-death distribution is estimated in the population where only symptom data are available. Current approaches analyze only one cause at a time, involve assumptions judged difficult or impossible to satisfy, and require expensive, time-consuming, or unreliable physician reviews, expert algorithms, or parametric statistical models. By generalizing current approaches to analyze multiple causes, we show how most of the difficult assumptions underlying existing methods can be dropped. These generalizations also make physician review, expert algorithms and parametric statistical assumptions unnecessary. With theoretical results, and empirical analyses in data from China and Tanzania, we illustrate the accuracy of this approach. While no method of analyzing verbal autopsy data, including the more computationally intensive approach offered here, can give accurate estimates in all circumstances, the procedure offered is conceptually simpler, less expensive, more general, as or more replicable, and easier to use in practice than existing approaches. We also show how our focus on estimating aggregate proportions, which are the quantities of primary interest in verbal autopsy studies, may also greatly reduce the assumptions necessary for, and thus improve the performance of, many individual classifiers in this and other areas. As a companion to this paper, we also offer easy-to-use software that implements the methods discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos de Saude Publica is the property of Escola Nacional de Saude Publica Sergio Arouca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)