Sudden death due to a laryngeal cyst.

A 68-year-old woman died suddenly at home; her body was found in an armchair in a sitting position. Autopsy revealed a laryngeal cyst of a dilated secretory gland, located above the vocal cords, which obstructed the glottis, causing asphyxia. A review of the literature with forensic implications is given.

Bacterial endocarditis in a transplanted heart.

A 51-year-old man presented with an abscess in his sternotomy scar 33 months after orthotopic heart transplantation. After surgical drainage he developed a febrile illness which led to renal and pulmonary failure. Twenty-three days after the illness began, blood cultures grew Staphylococcus aureus and he died 11 days later.

Bone changes in mice after prolonged continuous exposure to a high concentration of carbon monoxide.

Quantitative and qualitative pathological changes in mouse bones are described after continuous exposure to 0.24% v/v of carbon monoxide in air for periods of up to 180 days. Planimetric measurements of five bones (parietal bone, sternum, lumbar vertebrae, ribs and shafts of femurs) showed a considerable increase in the amount of bone tissue in all bones except the femurs.

The cancer research campaign (King's/Cambridge trial for early breast cancer: clinico-pathological aspects.

Analysis of pathological data in the 10th year of follow-up of a multicentre trial of the management of operable breast cancer has confirmed the correlation of prognosis with tumour grade, tumour size and lymph-node status. For each factor examined there was no difference in survival between the 2 treatment groups ("watch policy" and radiotherapy) but patients in the WP group whose tumours were of Grade II or III or greater than 2 cm, or with lymph-node metastases, had a greater chance of local recurrence. Cellular reaction had no relationship with prognosis, except in patients with Grade III tumours.

Effects of environmental temperature on haemopoietic stem cells in the tails of mice.

Using the endogenous spleen colony assay method of Till & McCulloch (1963), the numbers of haemopoietic stem cells present in the bone marrow in the tails of mice were estimated under different environmental temperatures. Compared to animals kept at 22--26 degrees C, mice transferred to an kept at 36.5 degrees C showed a doubling of colony-forming units in the tail in 1--4 weeks.