Forensic science international
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Investigation of bodies recovered out of water comprises an important proportion of the medico-legal requests. However, the key question whether the victim died due to "true" drowning can frequently not easily be solved. In addition, the diagnosis of hydrocution is even more difficult. ⋯ Additional biochemical and technical methods could be useful. Unfortunately, the cost-benefit analysis in current practice could be hard to defend. However, the importance of this subject asks for further scientific approaches and research.
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A case is reported in which death is caused due to electrocution by a copper wire that was used as string of the kite. Electric current flowed through the copper wire of cut down kite when it touched power line transmitting alternate current of 240 V at 50 Hz. ⋯ A unique type of electrical injury is noticed due to contact with live copper wire. This paper stresses the unique danger of the kite flying.
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In the period 1995-1999 there were 388 car exhaust-gas suicides in Denmark. Of these 343 (88.4%) were men and 45 (11.6%) were women, the average age being 47 years. The car exhaust-gas suicides made up 9.3% of all suicides in Denmark in the period. ⋯ During these 30 years the number of passenger cars in Denmark doubled, which explains the increase in car exhaust-gas suicides during 1969-1987. A possible explanation for the decrease in 1987-1999 is the introduction of the catalytic converter, which was made mandatory in 1990. We anticipate that car exhaust-gas suicides will continue to decrease in numbers, as more cars are equipped with catalytic converters.
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Case Reports
Spinal epidural haematoma after blunt trauma to the neck and hyperflection of the cervical spine.
Spinal epidural haematomas (sEDH) can be regarded as rare events, in principle a spontaneous and a traumatic aetiology can be distinguished. Spontaneous spinal epidural haematomas can arise, e.g. from vascular malformations, coagulopathies, etc. On the other hand, traumatic sEDH are related to, e.g. spinal trauma or intraoperative vascular injuries. ⋯ There were no histological signs of axonal injury. Reconstruction revealed that when sitting on a chair in a drunk condition, the individual's upper part of the body had fallen backwards in the corner and subsequently got stuck with maximum anteflection of the head and cervical spine, causing rupture of vessels and spinal epidural haematoma. Acute respiratory failure caused by impairment of the phrenic nerve following spinal epidural haematoma with potential synergism of alcohol intoxication was ascertained as the cause of death.
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Lipid-deposits in internal organs, e.g. nephrons, are discussed as reliable marker to determine hypothermia as cause of death. While investigations concerning lipid vacuoles in the epithelium of the renal tubules are already published, there is no systematic information available about hypothermia and lipid deposits in cardiomyocytes. Therefore, this retrospective study presents the first results of lipid-stainings of myocardial samples taken by autopsies in hypothermia-cases in comparison to samples from a control group. It was the aim of the study to clarify the conceivable causal relationship between death due to hypothermia and lipid-deposits apart from lipofuscin and fatty degeneration, respectively, in cardiomyocytes.