Legal medicine
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Case Reports
A death in a stationary vehicle whilst idling: unusual carbon monoxide poisoning by exhaust gases.
In this paper, we describe an autopsy case in which death was due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning occurring in a stationary vehicle idling in an open space. To investigate the source of the fatal fumes, the death scene situation was reconstructed using the vehicle. ⋯ CO gas was detected while idling and the level in the cabin gradually rose to 1.5% over a 2-h period. Since the 8-year-old motor vehicle seemed to have been defective for some months, it was concluded that stationary idling overnight caused an accumulation of toxic gases in the interior.
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In recent years, the increase in international migration movements has led to a greater demand for forensic age estimation of foreigners without valid identification documents in numerous countries. The growing importance of forensic age determination is underlined by a rapid rise in the number of expert reports by the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Berlin University Hospital Charité. A total of 247 expert opinions on estimated age were given between 1992 and 31 December 2000. ⋯ In 45 cases, the age diagnoses could be verified. In all cases where the age could be verified beyond doubt, deviations from the actual age did not exceed +/-12 months. From this, it can be concluded that the combined application of the above-mentioned methods allows forensic age estimations with a sufficiently high degree of reliability.
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To clarify trends and urban-rural differences in the early death rate (deaths within 24 h divided by the deaths within 1 year after motor vehicle accident x100 [%]) due to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) in Japan. Mortality data were collected from the annual statistics of traffic accident research and vital statistics in Japan from 1980 through 1998 and analyzed. Early death rates were nearly constant (73.9-78.0%) from 1980 through 1998. ⋯ As regards to geographic variations, early death rates and 1-year death rates per 100,000 vehicles were significantly higher in rural areas (population density <1000/km(2)) than in urban areas. To investigate MVA deaths, both early and late deaths should be examined. Decreasing the early death rate, a new index for MVA death, which reflects the reduction of injury severity is important for preventing MVA deaths.