Fatal Suicidal Intoxication with Pentoxifylline Complicated by Cardiovascular Disorders

Pentoxifylline is a xanthine derivative used in vascular disorders that is recognized as a safe drug for patients. The paper describes a rare case of fatal and suicidal pentoxifylline poisoning in an 82-year-old man with multiple preexisting diseases (arterial hypertension, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and intermittent claudication). The patient was admitted to the clinical toxicology unit approximately 2 h after the overdose and died 36 h after the admission despite intensive care. Multiple arterial blood gas analyses and other laboratory tests were performed during the hospitalization and are reported in the paper. Postmortem examination of the biological material was carried out with the use of histopathological techniques. The toxicological studies using chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry showed that postmortem blood levels of pentoxifylline have been found in the range which is described in the available literature to be toxic and lethal. The analysis of test results and clinical data showed that the patient died as a result of increasing circulatory and respiratory failure, complicated by disorders of the acid-base and electrolyte balance (respiratory alkalosis, concomitant lactic acidosis, and hypokalemia), hyperglycemia, and coagulation disorders.

Reduced ribosomal DNA transcription in the prefrontal cortex of suicide victims: consistence of new molecular RT-qPCR findings with previous morphometric data from AgNOR-stained pyramidal neurons

Prefrontal cortical regions play a key role in behavioural regulation, which is profoundly disturbed in suicide. The study was carried out on frozen cortical samples from the anterior cingulate cortex (dorsal and ventral parts, ACd and ACv), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the dorsolateral cortex (DLC) obtained from 20 suicide completers (predominantly violent) with unknown psychiatric diagnosis and 21 non-suicidal controls. The relative level of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as a marker of the transcriptional activity of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) was evaluated bilaterally in prefrontal regions mentioned above (i.e. in eight regions of interest, ROIs) by reverse transcription and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The overall statistical analysis revealed a decrease in rDNA activity in suicide victims versus controls, particularly in male subjects. Further ROI-specific post hoc analyses revealed a significant decrease in this activity in suicides compared to non-suicides in five ROIs. This effect was accentuated in the ACv, where it was observed bilaterally. Our findings suggest that decreased rDNA transcription in the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in suicide pathogenesis and corresponds with our previous morphometric analyses of AgNOR-stained neurons.

Electric permittivity anomaly close to the critical consolute point of a nitrobenzene + octane liquid mixture

Electric permittivity and density were measured in a nitrobenzene and octane mixture in the vicinity of the upper critical consolute point. Measurements were conducted in the one-phase region, at the critical concentration. The possibility of stirring in the course of measurements allowed us to check if the density and concentration gradients had any influence on the obtained results. No signs of the presence of the gradients mentioned above were found. Using the data obtained in the reported measurements, different methods of the fitting of the equation describing the permittivity anomaly were tested. The calculation of a reliable value of the critical amplitude, used to estimate the critical temperature shift under the influence of the electric field, was of particular interest. The derivative (∂T(c)/∂E(2)) was found to be (-3.9 ± 0.3) × 10(-16) K m(2) V(-2).

Sound attenuation, shear viscosity, and mutual diffusivity behavior in the nitroethane-cyclohexane critical mixture

The shear viscosity eta(s), mutual diffusion coefficient D, and ultrasonic attenuation spectra of the nitroethane-cyclohexane mixture of critical composition have been measured at various temperatures near the critical temperature T(c). The relaxation rate of order parameter fluctuations resulting from a combined evaluation of the eta(s) and D data follows power law behavior with the theoretical exponent and with the large amplitude Gamma(o)=(156+/-2)x10(9) s(-1). The ultrasonic spectra have been evaluated in terms of a critical contribution and a noncritical background contribution. The amplitude of the former exhibits a temperature dependence, in conformity with a temperature dependence in the adiabatic coupling constant (|g| = 0.064 near T(c) and 0.1 at T-T(c)=3 K). If the variation of the critical amplitude with T is taken into account the experimental attenuation coefficient data display a scaling function which nicely fits to the theoretical prediction from the Bhattacharjee-Ferrell dynamic scaling model [R. A. Ferrell and J. K. Bhattacharjee, Phys. Rev. A 31, 1788 (1985)].