Legal medicine
-
To clarify drowning death, positive evidence for aspiration of the immersion medium and the subsequent fatal mechanism is necessary. This study investigated biochemical findings with regard to lung weight in drowning cases of adults (n=56, >18 years of age, <48 h postmortem: salt water, n=19; fresh water, n=21; brackish water, n=16), using acute cardiac death cases (n=240) as controls. The biochemical markers used in this study were urea nitrogen (UN), sodium (Na), chloride (Cl), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) in the blood and pericardial fluid (PCF). ⋯ Correlation of the left cardiac serum level with lung weight was positive for Na, Cl and Mg in saltwater and brackish water drowning, and was also positive for Ca in saltwater drowning. There was an inverse correlation with lung weight for PCF Na and Cl levels in freshwater drowning. These findings suggest that analyses of serum and pericardial markers in relation to lung weight are useful for evaluating the composition and amount of aspirated medium when investigating drowning death.
-
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between urine levels of target drugs of abuse for which Triage DOA gave positive results, as well as the cut-off levels for these drugs. Thirty-eight forensic urine samples positive for commonly abused drugs were involved. Of these samples, 12 were positive for barbiturates (BAR), 11 for benzodiazepines (BZO), 8 for opiates (OPI), 7 for amphetamines (AMP), and 4 for tricyclic antidepressants (TCA). ⋯ Urine samples positive for OPI contained total dihydrocodeine, codeine or morphine at concentrations higher than cut-off levels. In TCA-positive samples, amitriptyline was detected at concentrations higher or lower than cut-off level, and clomipramine was detected at a concentration much lower than cut-off level. Metabolites of BZO and TCA, which are not typically analyzed by instrumental procedures, may cross-react to varying degrees with the antibodies used for Triage DOA.
-
Medico legal autopsy has a basic objective to reconstruct as accurately as possible the circumstances of death to solve a judicial problem, is a process of collection of evidences from the cadaver and interpretation of the data to solve a series of questions raised in the judicial process. These questions are not only the cause of death, the survival time, the data of death, the role of previous pathology in the death's process, etc. Considering that there are more difficult problems to be solved and higher requirements for quality it is necessary that new diagnostic tools are introduced into forensic pathology. ⋯ It is not easy for the pathologist to include in their work routine tests that require not only a change of attitude but a change in the sampling methods to obtain the materials and necessary fluids for these determinations. The weight of histopathology is decisive and it is more practical. Obviously pathologist prefers take the closer methodology to own field.
-
Case Reports
Imitative suicide by burning charcoal in the southeastern region of Korea: the influence of mass media reporting.
We describe seven cases of imitative suicide, unintentionally affected by mass media reporting of an accidental death by burning charcoal. After the first report on accidental death by burning charcoal, three cases occurred in 3 months in 2007, and another four cases in the same season in 2008 in the southeastern region of Korea. ⋯ Five cases were attempted inside of cars and two cases were attempted indoors. The reporting and portrayal of the unusual accidental deaths, as well as the reporting of the means used in the suicide may have potentially led younger people exposed to such stimuli to unexpectedly facilitate suicidal acts by the method described in the media.
-
Comparative Study
Postmortem mRNA quantification for investigation of infantile death: a comparison with adult cases.
Previous studies suggested the diagnostic significance of postmortem mRNA quantification in investigating the death process. The present study investigated infantile cases compared with adult cases. Autopsy cases (n=58, within 48 h postmortem) comprised infants (<1 year of age: mechanical asphyxiation, n=5; pulmonary infection, n=14), elderly children (2-8 years of age; pulmonary infection, n=3), and adults (>20 years of age: mechanical asphyxiation, n=21; pulmonary infection, n=13). ⋯ For pulmonary infection, both mRNA levels in the skeletal muscle were similar in infantile and adult cases. In older child cases of pulmonary infection, the pulmonary mRNA level of GLUT1 was similar to that in adult cases, and that of VEGF was intermediate between infant and adult levels. These findings indicate a similar death process due to pulmonary infection and asphyxiation in infants; thus, it may be difficult to distinguish these causes of death.