The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Sep 2009
Case ReportsDeath comes through eye: a rare case of electrocution.
Injury and death from electric current although rare, are not uncommon. In majority of the fatalities, death usually results from accidental contact with a live wire, both in industrial and domestic circumstances. ⋯ However, here we present a unique site of electrocution, the eye, which has probably never been reported before. This case was also accidental in nature.
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Jun 2009
A nationwide survey of the extent of autopsy in sudden unexplained death in epilepsy.
Sudden unexplained death in epilepsy is a catastrophic event that requires autopsy for definitive diagnosis. Lack of awareness of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy as an important cause of death in epilepsy has been observed among coroners and pathologists. This survey study of US coroners and medical examiners (MEs) assesses their postmortem examinations of persons with epilepsy who had died suddenly without obvious cause. ⋯ Urban coroners and MEs are significantly more likely than their nonurban colleagues to remove the brain for examination or collect blood samples for these determinations. Lack of family consent and the cost of autopsy are major reasons for not performing an autopsy of persons with epilepsy. Our study underscores the importance of promoting to all coroners and MEs and to the public the need for thorough autopsy of persons with epilepsy when the cause of death is not obvious.
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Jun 2009
Case ReportsAn unusual suicide case of the combination of asphyxia.
A 52-year-old man died of a combination of suffocation by adherent tape wrapped around the head to cover the airway and ligature strangulation by an electrical cord. An autopsy could not conclusively determine whether it was a case of suicide or homicide. ⋯ Suicide because of a combination of several forms of asphyxia has rarely been reported in the past. Therefore, this is a very rare and unusual suicide case.
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Am J Forensic Med Pathol · Mar 2009
ReviewPostmortem artifacts made by ants and the effect of ant activity on decompositional rates.
Ants belong to the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera and they are one of the world's dominant insect groups. Ants can be present at all stages of carrion decomposition as they are typically observed shortly after death or during the early postmortem period, but even later once the fly maggots had left the body. Their role in the faunal succession varies from predator on the eggs and larvae of other insects (mainly Diptera), thus reducing significantly the rate of decomposition, to scavenger on the flesh or exudates from the corpse itself. ⋯ They are also occasionally misinterpreted as patterned abrasion due to the imprinted effect of a blunt or offending object. On closer inspection, artifacts made by ants can be immediately apparent especially when the ants are identified upon the body, but final diagnosis can be only confirmed at the autopsy by gross and microscopic analysis. The features of such lesions will be illustrated in detail by reviewing some interesting forensic cases.
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First identified in institutionalized psychiatric populations, chronic excited delirium syndrome was not uncommon in the first half of the 20th century. After a temporal pause, excited delirium re-emerged in the 1980s, in an acute form. Generally occurring in victims without organic mental disease, acute excited delirium is associated with stimulant abuse. ⋯ These cases generally included violent behavior, drug intoxication, and the use of restraints. In contrast, chronic forms of excited delirium were not clearly identified. This divergent finding may be an artifact of case documentation, case inclusion criteria and/or medico-legal protocol, specific to Maryland.