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Forensic Pathophysiology of Asphyxial Death
Published in Sudhir K. Gupta, Forensic Pathology of Asphyxial Deaths, 2022
Even a pressure abrasion typical of hanging, but with multiple underlying soft tissue and bony injuries in the neck, will always raise the doubt of postmortem suspension after strangulation or throttling of homicidal hanging even though most of these cases will later be proven to be suicidal in manner considering all the circumstantial evidences. When more than one method is adopted for suicide, similar confusions may arise. In such situations, the medical opinion, if scientific, confident and precise, can be helpful to many of the different segments of the people involved. Hence, a detailed scientific discussion and an elaborative approach in cases of fatal pressure over neck due to hanging are required in the best interest of law and society. Huge hue and cry, public unrest and mass movements have happened in relation to many such cases in the past. As an expert witness, a forensic medicine specialist who conducted the autopsy should be confident to formulate his opinion regarding the cause and manner of death in these cases wherever possible, and a systematic approach has been followed in this book to facilitate the same. The concepts of postmortem suspension and homicidal hanging along with their differentiating features are discussed in detail, and other causes of mechanical asphyxia like smothering, throttling, chocking, aspiration, drowning, postural asphyxia, traumatic asphyxia, asphyxia due to muscle relaxants including toxins and many others have been explained along with multiple photographs, pictorial demonstrations and detailed case reports in their respective sections.
Postmortem Radiology and Digital Imaging
Published in Cristoforo Pomara, Vittorio Fineschi, Forensic and Clinical Forensic Autopsy, 2020
Giuseppe Bertozzi, Francesco Pio Cafarelli, Andrea Giovanni Musumeci, Giulio Zizzo, Giampaolo Grilli, Cristoforo Pomara
The awareness of the need for a great guarantee of validity (the best in a technical sense) and the capability to refer to more objective technical–scientific backups have influenced coroners’ sensitivity during the past few years. In forensic medicine, the need for a description as objective, straight, controllable as possible has grown so the eventual laboratorial controls must be reported within the whole results, the images must be enclosed, the clinical objectification must be complete and detailed, and still more the morphological surveys (postmortem, histological, and so on) should be recorded.
History of Asphyxia-related Deaths
Published in Burkhard Madea, Asphyxiation, Suffocation,and Neck Pressure Deaths, 2020
There is, of course, no specific date on which forensic medicine emerged as a recognizable separate scientific discipline. Several steps in the development of forensic medicine can be distinguished (Table 1.1): first, the use of medical knowledge for legal and public purposes; second, the compulsory medical testimony for the guidance of judges in special cases; and third, the professionalization as a named discipline.
Radiographic evaluation of the mandible to predict age and sex in subadults
Published in Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 2022
Forensic medicine involves the use of the human skeleton to identify human remains as well as living individuals. This data is also used by anthropologists to construct ethnographic profiles of specific communities. Regarding the estimation of age and sex as a part of identification, unlike direct measurement from dry mandibles, which are rarely used, clinical images (e.g. x-rays, ultrasonography, CT scans, and MRIs…) currently provide a great amount of complementary sources of information for forensic analysis through indirect measurement [9,12,15]. The high rate of prescription of panoramic radiographs, which are commonly used in routine dental practice to assess vital mandibular and maxillary structures, offers a useful tool for the study of morphological differences between males and females and the changes that occur with age. Although the panoramic radiographs have some limitations, like difficulties in controlling the magnification and geometric distortion of the images, the interference of superimposed images are not encountered and it provides an accurate and reproducible method of measuring the chosen points with contrast, brightness enhancement, and enlargement [19]. However, as suggested by some authors [20,21] distortion of measurements can be acceptable by positioned the patient’s head properly in the equipment. Thus, all radiographs in our study were made by the same experienced dental radiographer with the same apparatus and selected radiographs were of good enough image quality to reduce possible errors.
Accidental poisoning with autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale): a case series
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2021
Gasper Razinger, Gordana Kozelj, Vojka Gorjup, Damjan Grenc, Miran Brvar
Toxicological analyses were performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Ljubljana. All samples of bodily fluids were protected from light by wrapping in light-tight aluminium foil after collection. If not analysed immediately, they were stored at −50 °C until processed. A GC–MS method was used for quantitation of colchicine in samples taken before the year 2005. Colchicine was determined after extraction of 1 mL samples with 1-chlorobutanol at alkaline pH. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of the method was 3 µg/L. For samples collected after 2005, a more sensitive LC–MS/MS method was used which required only 0.1 mL sample. Despite needing a small sample volume and simpler preparation (adding double volume of acetonitrile, centrifugation and dilution), an LLOQ of 0.5 µg/L was achieved.
SMAD4 protein is decreased in the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices in schizophrenia
Published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2021
Andrew S. Gibbons, Daniel Hoyer, Brian Dean
All human tissue was sourced through the Victorian Brain Bank Network, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Approval for the study was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. For each subject, a case history review was completed using the Diagnostic Instrument for Brain Studies (DIBS) (Hill et al. 1996; Roberts et al. 1998) and a consensus diagnosis reached by two psychiatrists and a psychologist. To reduce the impact of autolysis, cadavers were refrigerated within 5 h and the brains were frozen to −70 °C within 30 min of autopsy (Ferrer et al. 2007). Post-mortem interval (PMI) was calculated from the time death to that of autopsy. Where death was not witnessed, time of death was taken as the midpoint between the subject being found and being last seen alive. Subjects, who were found dead more than 5 h since being witnessed alive, were excluded from the study. The pH of the CNS was measured as described previously (Kingsbury et al. 1995). Duration of illness (DOI) was taken as the time from first presentation with psychiatric symptoms to the time of death. The final recorded antipsychotic drug doses (FRADD) were recorded and standardised to chlorpromazine equivalents.