Forensic science international
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Case Reports
A gas chromatographic analysis of phosphine in biological material in a case of suicide.
In a suicide committed using aluminium phosphide (AlP) the liberated toxic phosphine gas was detected in post-mortem specimens using a headspace gas chromatographic procedure with a nitrogen-phosphorous detector (HS-GC/NPD). At autopsy a direct sampling into airtight headspace vials for a later analysis is recommended. AlP has to be considered a potent pesticide and its use and availability should be restricted as much as possible.
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A retrospective study was carried out on 132 fatalities due to gunshot wounds secondary to long firearms. One group of suicide (n=72) and one group of homicide (n=60) were statistically compared regarding age and sex of the victim, number of shots, range of fire, direction of the projectile(s), anatomical distribution of entrance sites, weapon and ammunition types and the nature of eventual associated traumatic lesions. The frequency of suicide was higher when the victim's age increased. ⋯ In case of suicidal gunshots to the left chest, both upwards and downwards directions, and also both right-to-left and left-to-right directions can occur. From 22 suicide cases showing entrance wound in the mouth, a downwards direction was found in only one. This study underlines the importance but also the limits of the autopsy findings (including direction of the projectile(s) related to the entrance site) for giving an indication of the manner of death (homicide vs. suicide).
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Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have been established as being responsible for cellular adaptation to oxygen deficiency in tissue ischemia and hypoxia mediated by hypoxia-inducible factor 1. We hypothesized that mRNA quantification of these factors in autopsy tissue specimens could have diagnostic significance for investigating the pathology of death, especially after injury. Various cases (total, n=119; less than 48h postmortem) were examined, including fatal blunt injury (n=71) and sharp instrument injury (n=18), as well as asphyxia (strangulation/hanging, n=12) and acute myocardial infarction/ischemia (n=18) as controls. ⋯ In the kidney, subacute deaths showed higher GLUT1 mRNA levels compared with acute deaths from blunt injury, but no significant change was found for VEGF mRNA. Immunohistochemistry showed visually predominant GLUT1 immunoreactivity in the renal cortex for cases with a longer survival time, coincident with the results at the mRNA level. Tissue-specific differences in mRNA quantification of GLUT1 and VEGF shed light on tissue ischemia/hypoxia and subsequent tissue-dependent pathophysiological changes leading to death after injury.
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Firings in the horizontal direction at cloth targets and at human skin from autopsy material were performed using the pistols 7.62 mm Tokarev (TT), 9 mm Makarov (PM) and 9 mm x 19 mm Glock 19 with common ammunition. On cloth targets, soot was more visible in the case of the TT up to firing distance of 50 cm and there were faint soot flecks on some synthetic cloths even at a distance of 75 cm. In the case of the PM and the Glock, the soot was seen on some synthetic cloths at a distance of 50 cm. ⋯ At a distance of 25 cm, the gunpowder particles were found in the epidermis and deeper in the dermis (TT and Glock 19), and a distance of 50 cm they were on and in the stratum corneum. Starting from a distance of 50 cm, in the case of the PM we detected many partially burnt gunpowder grains not connected with the skin surface. At a distance of 75 cm, the gunpowder particles were on the skin surface, except one or two of them found in the stratum corneum (TT and PM), and at a distance of 100 cm, the particles were only on the skin surface.