IIJFMT 1(1) 2003
Journal Scan
The accuracy of three methods of age estimation using radiographic measurements of developing teeth.
Liversidge HM, Lyons
F, Hector MP.
Forensic Sci Int 2003; 131: 22-29
The accuracy of age estimation using three quantitative methods of developing permanent teeth was investigated. These were Mornstad et al. [Scand. J. Dent Res. 102 (1994) 137], Liversidge and Molleson [J. For. Sci. 44 (1999) 917] and Carels et al. [J. Biol. Bucc. 19 (1991) 297]. The sample consisted of 145 white caucasian children (75 girls, 70 boys) aged between 8 and 13 years. Tooth length and apex width of mandibular canine, premolars and first and second molars were measured from orthopantomographs using a digitiser. These data were substituted into equations from the three methods and estimated age was calculated and compared to chronological age. Age was under-estimated in boys and girls using all the three methods: the mean difference between chronological and estimated ages for method I was -0.83 (standard deviation +/- 0.96) years for boys and -0.67 (+/- 0.76) years for girls; method II -0.79 (+/- 0.93) and 0.63 (+/- 0.92); method III -1.03 (+/- 1.48) and -1.35 (+/- 1.11) for 8.00 - 8.99 years where age could be predicted to 0.14 +/- 0.44 years (boys) and 0.10 +/- 0.32 years (girls). Accuracy was greater for younger children compared to older children and this decreased with age.
Self - Strangulation: An uncommon but Not Unprecedented Suicide Method.
Di Nunno N, Costantinides
F, Conticchio G, Mangiatordi S, Vimercati L, Di Nunno C.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2002; 23(3):260-263
The authors report two cases of self-strangulation in which the investigators
had initially suspected homicide but eventually deemed the cases to be suicide.
Self-strangulation may be mistaken for homicide because it is widely believed
to be impossible to carry out this act without assistance. An accurate medicolegal
evaluation of the circumstances, a thorough postmortem examination, and methodical
inspection of the site are extremely important in such cases. It is equally
important to examine the knot or other means used to exert pressure on the
neck and to document its position. Finally, to gain a full understanding of
these unusual cases, close collaboration between the two different fields,
investigative and medicolegal, is essential.
Fatalities due to methyl alcohol intoxication in Turkey; an 8 - year study.
Yayci N, Agritmis
H, Turla A, Koc S.
Forensic Sci Int 2003; 131: 36-41
The aim of this study is to examine methyl alcohol poisoning cases from the medico-legal point of view. The records of the Morgue Department of Council of the Forensic Medicine were reviewed retrospectively for all methyl alcohol poisonings for the period of 27.10.1992 and 30.05.2001. The victim's age, sex, death year, death place, methyl alcohol blood levels, the source of methyl alcohol, accompanying laboratory results and histopathologic tissue changes were recorded.
The number of deaths due to the methyl alcohol poisoning was 271 during that period of time. Two hundred and forty-two of the (89.3%) total 271 methyl alcohol fatalities were men and 29 (10.7%) of were women. The largest age group was 36 - 40 years old, followed by 41 - 45.
The methyl alcohol blood concentrations ranged widely from 50 to 755 mg for per 100 ml. There were 222 cases (81.9%) with the methyl alcohol blood concentrations over 100 mg/dl.
Twenty-nine (10.7%) victims were poisoned through the consumption of cologne and three of them with alcoholic beverage named "Raki". Consumed products were not known in all other cases because of insufficient patient history and data.
As a conclusion, regarding the distribution according to years, mortality due to methyl alcohol intoxication in our country have been proceeding on a certain level. In order to decrease the mortality due to methyl alcohol intoxication, some precautions should be developed that could prevent the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages illegally produced.
Change in the Postmortem Formation of Hypostasis in Skin Preparations 100 Micrometers Thick.
Sannohe
S.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2002; 23(4): 349-354
Twenty - three paired skin samples from 19 autopsies without putrefaction were taken from areas of livor mortis that (1) did not blanch with finger pressure and (2) blanched with strong pressure by tweezers. Three - dimensional microscopic viewing of 100-micrometer Benzedrine-stained skin sections demonstrated small blood vessels filled with red blood cells. The diameters of the clumps of red blood cells were greater in the sections from non-blanched areas than in the blanched areas, suggesting that fixation of hypostasis soon after death depends on sedimentation of intravascular red blood cells and passive dilatation of small vessels rather than on postmortem hypostasis.