Acute Heart Failure, 90-Day Mortality, and Gravitational Ischemia in the Brain.

During the 90 days following hospitalization for acute heart failure, the ejection fraction and type of discharge medications have been shown in clinical trials to have little effect on mortality. We examined the recent literature addressing brain-related etiologies of sudden death following heart failure. Two mechanisms of sudden unexpected death have been suggested to possibly result from four significant influences on pathophysiology in the brain.

gom1 Mutant Mice as a Model of Otitis Media.

Otitis media (OM) disease is a common cause of hearing loss that is primarily the result of middle ear infection. At present, our understanding of the mechanisms leading to OM is limited due to the lack of animal models of OM with effusion (OME). Here, we report that the mice with genetic otitis media one (gom1) mutants are prone to OM.

CO-related vasoconstriction superimposed on ischemic medullary brain autonomic nuclei may contribute to sudden death.

Introduction: In 2015, a multinational randomized controlled phase IV clinical trial of adaptive servoventilation for the management of heart failure with central sleep apnea was halted in progress because more patients in the study group were dying than in the control group. One year later, another large clinical trial reported results on the effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in preventing sudden death and other cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke in patients with preexisting vascular disease as well as obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Sudden unexpected death has been associated with many types of small and nonmalignant medullary brain lesions, like demyelination plaques - largely asymptomatic until they caused sudden death.

Sudden unexpected death related to medullary brain lesions.

The sudden unexpected death of a person believed healthy has occasionally been followed by a detailed postmortem examination that revealed no cause of death except for the unexpected presence of a medullary brain lesion. Our review of all available cases of sudden unexpected death related to medullary brain lesions (SUD-MBL) revealed the absence of any specific constellation of ante-mortem disease characteristics, together with the finding that major motor and sensory pathways were grossly preserved in most cases. The wide variety in ages of the victims, and in specific types of tissue pathology affecting the medulla, makes this illness extremely difficult to anticipate when the medullary lesions are not otherwise known to exist during life.

Texas Has a New Pathotype of Peronosclerospora sorghi, the Cause of Sorghum Downy Mildew.

Three pathotypes of Peronosclerospora sorghi were known to occur in Texas as of 1980, with pathotype 3 (P3) predominant on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) grown in the Upper Coast area. Following the use of hybrids resistant to P3, combined with metalaxyl or mefenoxam seed treatment, sorghum downy mildew (SDM) became a minor disease in Texas until the occurrence of a widespread outbreak caused by a P3 strain resistant to metalaxyl and mefenoxam in Wharton County in 2001 (2). During July 2004, <1% of plants in a commercial field in Wharton County planted to two Pioneer Brand P3-resistant hybrids had white stripes on the leaves and leaf shredding typical of systemic SDM.