Brain acetaldehyde and ethanol: method of determination and diagnostic significance in ethanol poisoning

The content of ethanol and acetaldehyde in the limbic cortex and reticular formation of the brain was measured by gas-liquid chromatography in lethal ethanol poisoning. The content of acetaldehyde was significantly increased in the gyrus cinguli of the brain. Lethal poisonings occurred during any stage of ethanol intoxication. The data characterizing individual ethanol tolerance were obtained, which can be used for differential diagnosis of ethanol poisoning in practical forensic medicine.     

Decentralization and Economic Growth: Specification,Measurement, and Direction of Causal Relationship

The concept of decentralization has attracted the attention of scholars and policy makers alike for number of decades. Yet, there still remains a significant amount of confusion over its measurement and its contribution to an economy. Current literature on decentralization is characterized by the multitude of conflicting definitions and measurement instruments. Current literature on the relationship of decentralization and economic growth is also mixed. This article builds on the existing literature and develops a decentralization index that includes its most frequently mentioned dimensions. We find that our newly developed index captures decentralization concept better than other tools and that there is no significant relationship between decentralization and economic growth.     

The diagnostic value of determining the level of acetaldehyde in blood,urine, and cerebrospinal fluid

The contents of acetaldehyde (AA) in biological fluids obtained from the dead with the confirmed lethality causes, i.e. ischemic heart disease (IHD), alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACMP) and mechanical traumas (MT), were examined on an actual forensic-medical material (AFMM). 14 death cases of males, aged 18 to 45, were studied. The method of gas-liquid chromatography (GLC), or rather its variation of vaporphase analysis, was used to state the presence and to assess the concentration of acetaldehyde. The results revealed differences between concentrations of acetaldehyde in the examined groups depending on the presence or absence of alcoholemia. Thus, the AA concentrations were found in trace quantities in the MT group free of alcoholic intoxication; while, when it was present in this group, the concentrations went up several-fold. A higher AA content was typical of the ACMP group in all examined subjects both with and without alcoholic intoxication. The final study results are suggestive of that the AA determination in blood, urine and liquor by GLC could be used, within the forensic medical practice, in assessing a severity degree of alcoholic intoxication while establishing the lethal outcome cause due to chronic pathologies and MT.     

Determination of the severity of endogenous intoxication at the level of average molecular peptides

A possibility was demonstrated of using the method related with determination of the level of average-weight molecules or average molecules (AM) for the diagnosis of sudden death in forensic medical expertise of cadaver. Blood plasma was investigated according to the method of M.I. Gabriekyan modified by Yu. V. Pervushin, which involves deproteinization of samples with subsequent spectrophotometry at 254 and 280 nm. The AM levels were studied in different pathologies including cardiovascular diseases, alcoholic and narcotic intoxications and pneumonia, caused by a variety of agents, as well as the syndrome of sudden children's death. An analysis of the obtained results denotes a possibility of using the postmortem determination of the AM level concurrently with determination of an endogenous intoxication degree in the forensic medical practice for establishing the cause and mechanisms of nonviolent death.     

Histochemical changes in the hypothalamus, hypophysis, and adrenal glands observed in ethanol poisoning

A comprehensive morphological-and-histochemical study of neuroendocrinal internals in cases of ethanol poisonings was undertaken. Actual forensic medical materials were used (62 cadavers) to make morphometry examinations of the hypothesis and adrenal glands. Besides, the distribution of alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase was investigated in the mediatory differential brain sections, i.e. cerebellum, locus coeruleus, dorsal raphe nucleus, hypothalamus and adrenal glands. A differential distribution of ethanol-oxidizing enzymes as well as their changes in ethanol lethal poisoning were established; additionally, a variety of morphological signs were defined, which enable the differential diagnosis of a death reason in acute alcoholic intoxication.     

The activity of ethanol- and aldehyde-oxidizing enzymes of the brain in ethanol intoxication

The distributed activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADG) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (AldDG) was histochemically studied in neurons of locus coeruleus, nuclei of raphe, substantia nigra and in cerebellar cortex in death or intoxication of ethanol (IE). The enzymatic activity was found to be changing depending on whether there was IE or not. Both higher ADG and lower AldDG were registered in the examined brain sections, which differ by mediatory structure of the neuronic centers. The detected regularities can be used within the forensic medical diagnosis of IE.