Assessment of exposure to opiates and cocaine during pregnancy in a Mediterranean city: preliminary results of the "Meconium Project"

For the first time in Europe, the "Meconium Project" aimed to estimate the prevalence of drug use by pregnant women and the effects of exposure to illicit drugs during pregnancy on the fetus and infant. Between October 2002 and February 2004, 1151 (79%) dyads among the 1439 mother-infant dyads from the Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain, met eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in the study. We present preliminary results on the first 830 meconium samples and 549 mother-infant dyads, for which statistical analysis of socio-economic and demographic characteristics and newborn somatometry was completed. The meconium analysis showed an overall 7.9% positivity for drugs of abuse, with 6-monoacetylmorphine and cocaine being the analytes, most frequently found in samples positive for opiates and cocaine. Structured interview disclosed 1.3, 1.8 and 1.3% of mothers exposed to opiates, cocaine and both drugs, while only one mother declared ecstasy consumption. Meconium analysis showed that prevalence of opiates, cocaine and combined drugs exposure was 8.7, 4.4 and 2.2%, respectively, and confirmed the case of ecstasy use. Arecoline, the main areca nut alkaloid, was found in meconium specimens from four Asiatic newborns, whose mothers declared beetle nut consumption during pregnancy. Parental ethnicity was not associated with drug use, nor was the social class, although a higher tendency toward drug consumption was observed in professional and partly skilled mothers. Drug consuming mothers showed a higher number of previous pregnancies and abortions (p<0.05) when compared to non-consumer mothers (meconium negative test), probably due to a lack of family planning. Consumption of opiates and cocaine during pregnancy was associated with active tobacco smoking, a higher number of smoked cigarettes and cannabis use. Exposure status and smoking behavior correlated with significantly lower birth weight in newborns from mothers exposed only to cocaine and to opiates and cocaine simultaneously. Of the four newborns exposed to arecoline, one showed a low birth weight, low intrauterine growth, hyporeflexia and hypotonia.     

Instability of pancuronium in postmortem blood and liver taken after a fatal intramuscular Pavulon injection

The present study was designed to determine the stability of pancuronium in postmortem blood and liver during storage. Results were obtained using the method by Kerskes et al. [C.H.M. Kerskes, K.J. Lusthof, P.G.M. Zweipfenning, J.P. Franke, The detection and identification of quaternary nitrogen muscle relaxants in biological fluids and tissues by ion-trap LC-ESI-MS, J. Anal. Toxicol. 26 (2002) 29-34.], modified and validated in our laboratory. Target analytes were isolated after enzymatic hydrolysis followed by solid phase extraction (BondElut C18 column). Internal standardisation was carried out using laudanosine and the target ions were monitored by LC-ESI-MS (monitoring ions m/z 358 for IS and 286 for pancuronium). Materials were taken from a 46-year-old woman, who had been found dead. A syringe (2 ml) and an empty ampoule of Pavulon (4 mg/2 mL) were found in her hand. The residual volume of fluid in the syringe was 0.7 ml. An autopsy was performed six days after death. It revealed a needle mark on the left thigh. Postmortem materials (muscle from the injection site, blood and liver) and the syringe with fluid were stored for four months in a freezer at -20 degrees C. The initial pancuronium concentrations were 81 ng/mL in blood and 532 ng/g in liver. The analyte was stable when stored at -20 degrees C in blood even up to seven months. In liver samples its concentrations were variable. Pancuronium in blood stored at 20 degrees C underwent degradation very rapidly. After three months of storage these blood samples had concentrations not greater about 10% of the initial value. The degradation patterns of pancuronium depended on temperature and the biological matrix.     

European Regional Policy and Backward Regions: Implications Towards EU Enlargement

In this paper we show that the success of the EU Regional Policy, in terms of boosting growth in objective 1 regions, will mean a big opportunity for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and hence the increases in competition arising from an enlarged European market combined with a suitable regional development policy should in the future boost the growth of those countries. In the last part of the paper we made a simulation for the funding envelope from 2007, based on the 2000–2006 budget. We show that the figures of the Agenda 2000 provide enough financial support for 90% of the total CEEC population and for 75% of current objective 1 population.     

Genetic polymorphisms at four STR loci from the HLA region in a Venezuelan population

POPULATIONS: Whole blood samples from 74 unrelated healthy individuals were collected. The donors' sample included Venezuelan mestizos from various regions of the country, but mostly from the resident population of Caracas City. A Venezuelan mestizo is the offspring of a mating between a native Venezuelan and a person born in Europe, mainly in Spain.     

The application of miniplex primer sets in the analysis of degraded DNA from human skeletal remains

A new set of multiplexed PCR primers has been applied to the analysis of human skeletal remains to determine their efficacy in analyzing degraded DNA. These primer sets, known as Miniplexes, produce shorter amplicons (50-280 base pairs (bp)) than standard short tandem repeat (STR) kits, but still utilize the 13 CODIS STR loci, providing results that are searchable on national DNA databases. In this study, a set of 31 different human remains were exposed to a variety of environmental conditions, extracted, and amplified with commercial and Miniplex DNA typing kits. The amplification efficiency of the Miniplex sets was then compared with the Promega PowerPlex 16 system. Sixty-four percent of the samples generated full profiles when amplified with the Miniplexes, while only 16% of the samples generated full profiles with the Powerplex 16 kit. Complete profiles were obtained for 11 of the 12 Miniplex loci with amplicon sizes less than 200 bp. These data suggest smaller PCR amplicons may provide a useful alternative to mitochondrial DNA for anthropological and forensic analysis of degraded DNA from human skeletal remains.     

An unusual case of corpse dismemberment

A case of corpse dismemberment into 850 fragments was investigated at the Cracow Department of Forensic Medicine. The perpetrator employed various tools to divide the body into fragments and subsequently boiled the pieces to reduce their volume. The thus-prepared body decreased its volume to 30 kg. Subsequently, the perpetrator placed the body fragments in 2 large pots, which were then positioned in the space under the stairs and walled in.     

Massive pulmonary embolization by cerebral tissue after head trauma in an adult male

We report a case of an adult man who was run over by a car, suffering severe head trauma. After 3 hours in the hospital, he experienced sudden and severe hemodynamic deterioration, dying immediately. The autopsy showed massive cerebral tissue pulmonary embolization (CTPE), confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Multiple fractures of the skull, tear of the transverse sinus, and brain laceration of the occipital lobe were present. CTPE is very infrequent. In children and adults, it occurs as a complication of severe closed or penetrating head trauma. Although laceration of a large cerebral venous sinus is not always essential, in some cases (like in the present one) this laceration is the mechanism of entry of the cerebral tissue to the blood circulation. The clinical repercussion of CTPE is variable. In some cases, it could be an incidental finding of autopsy. In other cases, coagulation abnormalities and disseminated intravascular coagulation have been reported. Finally, such as in the present case, the immediate cause of death is the sudden hemodynamic failure due to the massive CTPE.     

Psychological treatment of men convicted of gender violence: a pilot study in Spanish prisons

In this article, the effectiveness of a psychological treatment program for men who are in prison for committing a serious offence of gender violence is tested. The sample consisted of 52 men who were imprisoned in eight Spanish prisons. The psychological treatment was a cognitive-behavioral program, in a group format, with 20 weekly sessions that lasted for 8 months. The results showed a significant improvement of irrational beliefs, about both women and violence, as a strategy to cope with everyday difficulties and a significant decrease of psychopathological symptomatology, anger, and hostility. On the other hand, results indicated that the only difference between the patients who dropped out of treatment and those who completed it was the level of initial motivation for treatment. Implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are discussed.