This paper reviews only some aspects of old age, death and conventional autopsy. Old age occurs when an individual's age nears or goes beyond the life expectancy of human beings. It is the final stage of the human life cycle which ultimately ends in death. During old age, the body loses the ability to utilize ATP effectively and this heralds the events which eventually truncate the life cycle.
Death occurs when a condition creates an enabling environment. This condition could be a pathology inside the body or it could also be an external factor that can cause an extensive shock to the body. Such a condition could be referred to as a cause of death. There are many causes of death around the world. Ideally, death occurs after old age which is a final stage in the human life cycle. However, there are situations whereby death could occur before old age. It is therefore apt to subject such deaths to an investigation. Investigations of such could be done through postmortem examination. Postmortem examination reveals the details of the cause of death.
An autopsy is a postmortem examination tool that can reveal the intricacies of a particular cause of death. Accordin to published reports, the use of autopsy is declining however its relevance is still very high in these modern times. Even though there are new imaging techniques that are very good, an autopsy may relatively prove to be the preferred choice due to availability, transparency and easy interpretation of results. In fact, without it, the truth behind a particular cause of death could be buried with the dead especially in places of limited resources. Owing to environmental and genetic factors, a particular cause of death may be common among one group of people than the other.
According to the report put together by the WHO, cardiovascular diseases top the list of the common causes of death around the world.
