Current knowledge of morbidities and direct costs related to diabetic foot disorders: a literature review.

Diabetes is a chronic disease associated with numerous complications including diabetic foot disorders, which are associated with significant morbidity and mortality as well as high costs. The costs associated with diabetic foot disorders comprise those linked to care (direct) and loss of productivity and poor quality of life (indirect). Due to the constant increase in diabetes prevalence, it is expected that diabetic foot disorder will require more resources, both in terms of caregivers and economically. We reviewed findings on management, morbidity, mortality, and costs related to diabetic foot disorder.

CT-Based Assessment of Relative Soft-Tissue Alteration in Different Types of Ancient Mummies.

Mummification leads to alteration of soft-tissue morphology. No research has focused specifically on differences in soft-tissue shrinkage depending on mummification type. This study evaluated whether soft-tissue alteration is dependent on type of mummification. A total of 17 human mummies have been investigated by computed tomography (CT). Samples included artificially embalmed ancient Egyptian mummies, naturally mummified South American corpses, ice mummies (including the Iceman, South Tyrol Museum of Archeology, Bolzano, Italy, ca. 3,300 BC), bog bodies and a desiccated mummy of possibly Asian provenance. The acquired data were compared to four contemporary bodies. The extent of soft-tissue shrinkage was evaluated using CT data. Shrinkage was defined as soft-tissue relative to area of bone (in number of voxels). Measurements were taken at 13 anatomically defined locations. Ice mummies show the highest degree of preservation. This finding is most likely explained due to frozen water within tissues. All other types of mummies show significantly (at P < 0.05) smaller relative area of preserved soft-tissue. Variation between different anatomical structures (e.g., upper lip vs. mid-femur) is significant, unlike variation within one compartment (e.g., proximal vs. distal humerus). Mummification type strongly affects the degree of soft-tissue alteration, surprisingly mostly independent of overall historical age. These results highlight the unique morphological impact of taphonomy on soft-tissue preservation and are of particular interest in tissue research as well as in forensics.