Forensic science international
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According to the Turkish Penal Code, Section 456, an assailant is punished in a correlation to the severity of the victim's injury. In this study, the injury scale used in Turkey in the basis code 456 is compared with Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). For this aim, a total of 984 cases out of the total amount reported at the Traumatology Section of the Turkish Council for Forensic Medicine were randomly selected and evaluated retrospectively. ⋯ From this point of view, in the modified AIS 91.1% of first degree of injury, 51.2% of second degree and 97.2% of third degree of injury are harmonious with TIS. Generally, 83.2% of the cases are harmonious with the AIS system. The purpose of this study is to determine what was the source of differences and to focus on particular traumatic lesions in order to determine a possible rearrangement of the Turkish Injury Scale.
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A 74-year-old woman was struck by a car travelling at about 50 km/h. On arrival at hospital, a CT scan showed dissection of the ascending and descending aorta. She collapsed and died suddenly 8h later. ⋯ The thoracic aortic dissection was not the direct cause of death although histological examination did reveal that it occurred in the accident. Traumatic aortic dissection is rare although traumatic aortic rupture is a major cause of death after blunt chest trauma. This paper discusses the mechanisms, and factors involved in aortic dissection caused by blunt trauma.
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Concentration-time profiles of ethanol were determined for venous whole blood and end-expired breath during a controlled drinking experiment in which healthy men (n=9) and women (n=9) drank 0.40-0.65 g ethanol per kg body weight in 20-30 min. Specimens of blood and breath were obtained for analysis of ethanol starting at 50-60 min post-dosing and then every 30-60 min for 3-6 h. This protocol furnished 130 blood-breath pairs for statistical evaluation. ⋯ We found no significant gender-related differences in BAC/BrAC ratios, being 2553+/-576 for men and 2417+/-494 for women (t=1.34, P>0.05). The mean rate of ethanol disappearance from blood was 0.157+/-0.021 mg/(g per hour), which was very close to the elimination rate from breath of 0.161+/-0.021 mg/(2l per hour) (P>0.05). Breath-test results obtained with Intoxilyzer 5000S (mg/2l) were generally less than the coexisting concentrations of ethanol in venous blood (mg/g), which gives an advantage to the suspect who provides breath compared with blood in cases close to a threshold alcohol limit.