Cyanide poisoning in victims of fire: analysis of 364 cases and review of the literature.

Cyanide is produced by the combustion of natural and synthetic materials. It is assumed that cyanide poisoning is a major component of smoke inhalation injury; however, scientific verification of this assumption is lacking. In this study we examined blood carboxyhemoglobin and cyanide levels in fire fatalities. Carboxyhemoglobin levels of 433 fatalities averaged 44.9% and exceeded fatal (> or = 50%) levels in 195 cases. Cyanide levels of 364 fatalities averaged 1.0 mg/L and exceeded fatal levels (> 3 mg/L) in 31 cases. For victims with cyanide levels above 3 mg/L the mean carboxyhemoglobin level was 62.5%. Cyanide poisoning is infrequent in fire fatalities, and when present it is associated with significant carboxyhemoglobinemia. Cyanide can be both produced and degraded in blood and tissue, making interpretation of blood levels difficult. In survivors of fire, detoxification of cyanide can occur without specific antidotes with the use of aggressive supportive care. Specific assay and treatment for cyanide poisoning is rarely necessary in the treatment of victims of smoke and fire.

Polyvinyl chloride toxicity in fires. Hydrogen chloride toxicity in fire fighters.

Polyvinyl chloride, of all the plastic polymers, has been implicated primarily in causing the most serious problem in fire fighting today because it releases hydrogen chloride gas when burning. One hundred seventy fire fighters who experienced symptoms from its toxicity have been studied from 1970 to 1975. One died.

Time-multiplexed real-time one-way image compensation for high-spatial-frequency aberration correction.

A new self-aligning geometry for real-time holographic image reconstruction for one-way imaging through a phase aberrator is demonstrated. The input beams are time multiplexed to isolate the diffracted image from the reference beams after the image beams propagate through the hologram. This geometry permits the image-bearing beam and the reference beams to copropagate through the holographic plane.

Disaster medical assistance teams.

Five medical care functions are essential in disaster medical care--field rescue and first aid, casualty clearing, medical staging, field surgical intervention, and definitive care. Each of these functions requires substantial augmentation in response to disaster. Three functions, clearing, staging, and field surgical care, are complex functions requiring organized and skilled disaster medical units. We describe two kinds of disaster medical units designed to meet these needs. One unit is designed for casualty clearing and medical staging, the other for field surgical services. We describe how they can be created and used as part of a National Disaster Medical System.

Interference filters as nonlinear decision-making elements for three-spot pattern recognition and associative memories.

Simple patterns consisting of three spots (V and Gamma) have been recognized by dividing, shifting, and recombining beams onto bistable ZnS interference filters. This experiment demonstrates AND-gate operation, cascading, and a moderate amount of parallelism, but a laser power of several watts was required and the response times were several milliseconds. An associative memory for fingerprint identification has been constructed using a VanderLugt correlator and an interference filter as a reflective thresholding device.