Iwona Ptaszyńska-Sarosiek

Vasculitis and stroke due to Lyme neuroborreliosis - a review

Abstract Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) is a rare cause of vasculitis and stroke. It may manifest as subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, and most often ischemic stroke due to cerebral vasculitis. The vast majority of reported cases have been described by European authors. A high index of suspicion is required in patients who live or have traveled to areas with high prevalence of tick-borne diseases, and in the case of stroke-like symptoms of unknown cause in patients without cardiovascular risk factors. In this review, we also present four illustrative cases of vasculitis and stroke-like manifestations of LNB.

Mercury Poisoning - The Cause of Death Assessed 6 years Posthumously

Fatal cases of mercury poisoning are reported very rarely. They are difficult to recognize because of a small number of specific symptoms. Most cases reported in the literature relate to suicidal or accidental poisoning with mercury. Cases of deliberate homicidal administration of mercury are uncommon. We present a fatal case of a woman who was hospitalized twice because of gastrointestinal symptoms which were later overlapped with signs of the central nervous system damage. After 6 years, findings indicated chronic poisoning with mercury.

Vascular Dementia with Overlapping Delirium as a Cause of Murder Combined with Attempt to Body's Fumble: A Case Report

The authors present the case of 79-years-old male who after murdered his wife, has diagnosed a vacluar dementia combined with delirium. He killed the victim by the task of stabbing a chest and extensive cut in the left inguinal area, which result was a haemorrhagic shock. Man who was a retired butcher tried disintegrated the victim’s body in the similar way like the animals bodies are treated in the butchery. About three weeks before man killed his wife, he became sad, irritable and agitated, had difficulty to sleep at night, seemed to be confused and disoriented. Moreover he said that he waiting for ‘Our Lady’ and saw the devil. These symptoms alarmed man’s family which tired to seek help from a psychiatrist and psychologist. Over time the symptoms grew and man killed his 80-years-old wife. After murder he was brought to the high secure forensic psychiatry unit for psychiatric observation, which showed that the underlying behavior were vascular dementia and comorbid delirium. An interesting point of cognitive problems seems to be involved in abovementioned homicide is increased activity of procedural memory during the delirium state, that was directly associated with body defragmentation.

Optimization of the method for α- l -fucosidase, β- d -galactosidase and β- d -glucuronidase determination in serum from hemolyzed blood

PURPOSE Adaptation of the colorimetric method for the determination of β-d-galactosidase, β-d-glucuronidase and α-l-fucosidase activities in serums from hemolyzed blood, the material currently being discarded. MATERIALS AND METHODS The materials included serums from hemolyzed and non-hemolyzed blood, obtained from 26 healthy volunteers. The adaptation of the method involved precipitation of the proteins with trichloroacetic acid after incubating serums with substrates, but before determining the products of enzymatic reactions. RESULTS In serums from hemolyzed and non-hemolyzed blood of the same persons, we found high correlations among the results obtained using hemolyzed blood (with adapted) and non-hemolyzed blood (with non-adapted) methods. CONCLUSION We are able to determine the β-d-galactosidase, β-d-glucuronidase and α-l-fucosidase activities in serums from hemolyzed blood (with adapted) and non-hemolyzed blood (with non-adapted) methods, with the same accuracy and precision.

Battered child syndrome in the records of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Białystok

Violence against children has been until now recognised as physical aggression escalating from corporal punishment, hard physical labour to homicide. Nowadays child abuse is considered as maltreatment occurring in four different aspects: physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Child abuse is difficult to disclose, as it is concealed both by the perpetrators and the victims. The child is afraid and at the same time, almost always ashamed of looking for help. The victim frequently feels guilty, considers the violence as a norm, but in many cases is not able to speek precisely and very often has problems in contacting the required person. The objective of this study is to analyse the phenomenon of child abuse on the basis of Department of Forensic Medicine records. The victims were characterized in terms of their age, sex, place of residence and the type and location of injuries. The kind of abuse and perpetrators were also determined by researchers.