International journal of legal medicine
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Edged weapons are a known domestic threat to the police forces of the UK. This threat is mitigated by wearing stab-resistant body armour that is either worn overtly or covertly depending on role. Although the UK military have traditionally focused their body armour design upon ballistic and fragmentation threats, future roles may require protection against an edged weapon threat. Since 2017, UK police body armour requirements for anatomical coverage for both edged weapon and ballistic threats are now based upon the requirements of UK military. This revised coverage may need additional research to determine minimum distances to essential structures. ⋯ Minimum distances to critical structures were significantly larger than those described in previous studies on civilians. This study will be used to supplement existing evidence to support existing UK police requirements for stab-resistant body armour. Using the weapon entry sites and vectors described in this study, overmatching to a behind armour depth of 17 mm would cover all of this population in this study.
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Overmatching occurs when body armour that has been designed to resist perforation by a specified projectile is perforated by a greater threat. This may result in wounding to the body armour wearer. ⋯ There was some evidence to suggest that overmatching events could lead to increased levels of damage during a survivable incident compared with no body armour being present. This information is of interest to armour designers and medical personnel that might treat such wounds.
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The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) is considered to be a reliable detector of cardiomegaly on computed tomography for livings, with a threshold of 0.5. Our study aimed to establish an adjusted CTR-based score to predict cardiac hypertrophy at PMCT. We selected adult's autopsy cases examined between 2009 and 2016. ⋯ This new score formula allows to overpasses this subjective step. We proposed a cut-off value of the score of 32 for the diagnosis of cardiac hypertrophy. The Internet/smartphone application (http://calc.chuv.ch/CTR) facilitates its routine application.
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Here, we tested the usefulness of small non-coding RNAs as references in quantitative RT-PCR expression analyses in hypothermia and chronic cardiac ischemia as the primary causes of death. Cq values of RNU6B, SCARNA17, SNORD25, and SNORA73A were determined from human cadaver samples of hypothermia and cardiac deaths. ⋯ Expression of RNU6B, a widely used reference, was found to be significantly lower in hypothermia than in chronic cardiac ischemia. In these conditions, RNU6B is a useful marker differentiating hypothermia deaths from chronic ischemic heart disease deaths, but not a valid reference for normalization in expression studies.
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The majority of injuries in survivors of gunshot wounds (GSW) are typically to the extremities. Novel wound ballistic research is encouraged to try and capture corporate knowledge on the management of these injuries gained during recent conflicts and understand the wounding patterns seen. With recent work examining the effect of UK military clothing on extremity GSW patterns in a synthetic model, a model with greater biofidelity is needed for ballistic testing. ⋯ Limbs were analysed after ballistic impact using contrast CT scanning to obtain measurements of permanent cavity damage, and results were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results showed significantly different damage measurements within limbs with Cmax for both ammunition types compared with the other clothing states. This may result in GSWs that require more extensive surgical management, and invites further study.