Archiwum medycyny sa̧dowej i kryminologii
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jul 2013
Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) and PMCT-angiography after cardiac surgery. Possibilities and limits.
PMCT is a well-known tool of the forensic pathologist. It is employed worldwide. PMCT-angiography offers additional insights. This paper intends to demonstrate possibilities of both methods after cardiac surgery. ⋯ PMCT and PMCT-angiography can visualise complications and the cause of death. Such knowledge may allow for prevention of suffering and death. It may also aid in improving valve design and implantation procedures.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2013
[An unusual case of suicidal carbon monoxide poisoning committed using a portable barbecue grill].
Fatal carbon monoxide poisoning is relatively often encountered in medico-legal practice. Although we usually deal with events of an accidental nature, cases of suicidal character are also quite common, both in Poland and in other European countries. The source of a poisonous gas that is used by a suicide to take his life are usually exhaust fumes from cars and home gas water-heaters that are released in closed spaces. ⋯ As it follows from the analysis of literature on the subject, despite extensively available materials, such a suicide method is exceptionally rare in the European or American culture, where isolated cases only are presented. On the other hand, the authors emphasize the fact that within the last score of years, using barbecue grills in suicidal poisoning has become exceedingly common in the Far East countries. The present report points to certain historical and cultural determinants that may affect such a distinct geographical polarization of the discussed method being used in some Asian countries and refers to a widely discussed by specialists significant role of mass media in popularization of such a suicide method.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jul 2011
Historical Article[Development of forensic thanatology through the prism of analysis of postmortem protocols collected at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Jagiellonian University].
When assessed based on the analysis of postmortem protocols, the successes of forensic thanatology appear to differ from those that might be assumed using as the foundation a review of publications and textbooks. The greatest achievements date back to as early as the 18th and 19th centuries, when the morphological changes observed in the majority of types of deaths resulting from disease-associated and traumatic causes were described. Within the past 130 years, however, or in other words, in the period when autopsy protocols were written that are today collected in the archives of the Krakow Department of Forensic Medicine, the causes and mechanisms of death became understood even when the said factors were associated with discrete postmortem changes only or no no such changes whatsoever were left. ⋯ In contrast to the early phase of the analyzed period, poisoning with such medications cannot be detected on autopsy, yet their introduction promoted the development of forensic toxicology. Nevertheless, for several score years, the heaviest toll was taken by carbon monoxide from the municipal gasworks, which appeared in 1905 and disappeared in 1982, killing as many as in excess of 50 individuals per year. In the collection of more than 60 thousand autopsy protocols, the author managed to find hitherto unknown, interesting cases, e.g. that describing a victim of a fatal accident in a stone quarry, witnessed by Karol Wojtyła during WWII, a victim of an unknown assassination attempt on the life of Bolesław Bierut, as well as protocols of postmortem examinations of bodies of the People's Republic of Poland intelligence agents who died while posted abroad.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Apr 2011
Historical Article[90th anniversary of the Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine Poznan University of Medical Sciences].
The paper outlines the history of the Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine Poznan University of Medical Sciences since it was established until today. Changes in the appearance and organization of the seat of the institution were discussed briefly. The profiles of all former heads of the Department, their contribution to the development and improvement of the institution and formation of the new scientific forensic medicine staff were presented. The specification and analysis of the scientific staff achievements was performed, especially taking into account their scientific publications and scope of the research that contributed to the efficient service activities for the prosecution and police, as well as society.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2011
[Neurosis as a mental disease--controversies surrounding insurance certification].
In the years 2008-2009, experts from the Department of Forensic Medicine in Katowice issued a dozen of expert opinions on the nature of the neurosis, addressing the question whether neurosis is a mental disease as understood under the general insurance conditions or whether neurosis is a mental disease as such. All the submitted cases involved policemen who had been diagnosed as neurotic and were refused insurance payments since the insurance company claimed payments could not have been effected due to the diagnosis of mental disease, meaning neurosis in the discussed cases. The plaintiffs invoked the fact that medical terminology describes such states as "mental disorders". In the article, the authors present the adopted model of opinionating, make an attempt at explaining the controversy and discuss the subtleties of medical terminology and the core differences between the terms "mental disorder" and "mental disease" as employed in medico-legal opinionating in such cases.