[Hemorrhage from the upper gastrointestinal tract as a cause of sudden death].

During the period from 1971 to 1988 there were 212 fatalities out of 24,822 obductions because of gastrointestinal bleeding. Bleeding from oesophagus varices was most often found, followed by bleeding from duodenal ulcer (16%), gastric ulcer (14%) and haemorrhagic gastritis (11%). The sex-ratio was 2:1 in favour of men.

Postmortem viability of the human immunodeficiency virus.

In 1989 blood samples from 2581 fatalities investigated at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Hamburg were screened for HIV-1-antibodies. Sera from 13 corpses were confirmed positive for HIV-1 (prevalence rate approx 0.5%).

[Causes of and circumstances in death due to subdural hematoma].

This study concerns lethal subdural hematomas in the autopsy material at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Hamburg (n = 102; 0.9% of 11,462 autopsies 1980 to 1988). 63 fatalities were male (mean age 46 years) and 39 were female (mean age 53 years).

[HIV-1 prevalence in deaths caused by drug overdose in various large cities of West Germany and West Berlin between 1985 and 1988].

The development of the HIV-1-prevalence among drug deaths (n = 753) in several German cities (West Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne and Stuttgart) from 1985 to 1988 was evaluated; in 1988 43% of 674 deceased drug addicts were examined. The regional prevalence rate was between 15 and 25%; only in Berlin 42% of the drug deaths were HIV-infected (cumulated data of all cities over the 4-year-period: 26%). There was no uniform or steady regional development of HIV-1-prevalence in the different cities.

[Clinical recognition of early forms of malignant melanoma].

The clinical diagnosis of malignant melanoma (MM) is based on the subjective evaluation of objective measurable parameters (criteria). The accuracy of melanoma diagnosis by dermatologists is only 75%. Particularly difficult is the diagnosis of precursors or early stages of MM.