Causes of death in Jamaica, 1953 to 1964: an analysis of post-mortem diagnosis at the University of the West Indies

During the period 1953 to 1964, post-mortem examinations were performed on 4,115 cases at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The diagnosed made in these cases have been reviewed and are presented in this paper. 48 per cent of the cases were less than seventeen years of age, of which 18.5 per cent were in the perinatal age group. The number of deaths from malnutrition and infection in children aged under three years has declined during the period of study. In the adult group neoplastic disease was the major cause of death followed closely by cardiovascular lesions, amongst which hypertensive heart disease was a common entity. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema was common amongst the respiratory causes of death.(AU)

Histiocytic medullary reticulosis: report of the first case in Jamaica

A case of histiocytic medullary reticulosis in an 18-year-old East Indian man is presented. To our knowledge, this is the youngest case to have been reported and the first described in an East Indian. The diagnosis was established at autopsy. The patient presented the typical clinical picture of a rapidly progressive illness of 5 weeks' duration, with fever, wasting, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and pancytopenia. An intresting hematologic finding, hitherto unreported, was erythrophagocytosis by atypical mononuclear cells in the peripheral blood. The histopathologic picture was charecterized by proliferation of erythrophagocytic histiocytes and thier precursors in the spleen, bone marrow, liver, and lymph nodes. The most severe changes were observed in the spleen and the bone marrow. The affected organs demonstrated iron deposits, most marked in the Kupffer cells of the liver. (AU)