To investigate the present status of pulmonary embolism as a cause of death in a general hospital patient population, a 5-year retrospective study of all autopsy reports and associated hospital records was undertaken. Pulmonary embolism was thought to be the cause of death in 239 of 2388 autopsies performed (10%): 15% of these patients were aged less than 60 years and 68% did not have cancer. Of these patients, 83% had deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in the legs at autopsy, of whom only 19% had symptoms of DVT before death. Only 3% of patients who had DVT at autopsy had undergone an investigation for such before death. Twenty-four per cent of patients who died from pulmonary embolism had undergone surgery a mean of 6.9 days before. Screening tests for DVT should be applied widely in the hospital population.

Mean platelet volume and count were measured in three groups: patients with acute myocardial infarction, a control group with myocardial ischaemia but no infarction and an asymptomatic group of young males. Mean platelet volume was significantly larger in the myocardial infarction group compared with the ischaemic heart disease group or the asymptomatic group. Two subpopulations were present within the myocardial infarction group. One subgroup had a large mean platelet volume and low count. The other subpopulation was indistinguishable, with regard to platelet count and mean volume, from the ischaemic heart disease group. Over 60% of the myocardial infarction group lay in the area of high platelet volume and low count compared with 13% of the ischaemic heart disease control group and 38% of the asymptomatic group. Acute myocardial infarction is likely to be associated with a large mean platelet volume and low count compared with the ischaemic heart disease group. There is no statistical evidence that this condition is related to smoking or size and site of infarct. This evidence suggests that large mean platelet volume and low platelet count could be a major risk factor for myocardial infarction.

The effects of age and breed on carcass and muscle characteristics of cull cows slaughtered at the same fattening state between 4 and 9 years of age were analysed in four French breeds: Aubrac (AU), Charolais (CH), Limousin (LI), and Salers (SA). Muscle characteristics were determined in three muscles: longissimus thoracis (LT), semitendinosus (ST) and triceps brachii (TB). They included: (1) the % frequency, cross-sectional area and % area of the different fibre types classified according to their contraction rate and metabolic properties (slow twitch oxidative (SO), fast twitch oxidative glycolytic (FOG) and fast twitch glycolytic (FG)), (2) the isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, representative of oxidative and glycolytic metabolism respectively, and (3) the total and insoluble collagen contents. Whatever the age of the animals at slaughter, the same carcass composition, fibre characteristics (% frequency, area, % area) and metabolic enzyme activities were obtained whatever the muscles considered. In contrast, important differences between breeds were observed in carcass composition (muscle, fat, bone) and enzyme activities. CH cows presented the highest final live weight and LI carcasses were characterized by higher muscle weight, lower fat and bone weights and more glycolytic muscles. Among the muscle characteristics, collagen was the most influenced by age and breed in a breed and muscle dependent manner respectively. AU and LI cows exhibited lower total and insoluble collagen contents than CH and SA cows, particularly at 6 to 7 years of age and for the LT and ST muscles. Thus collagen could explain an important part of the variability in meat quality from cull cows. In conclusion, results of this study provide consistent data on muscle characteristics of cull cows, few studies were available until then.

No abstract