International Journal of Legal Medicine

Sudden unexpected postnatal collapse (SUPC) is a sudden collapse of the clinical conditions of a full-term or near-term newborn, within the first 7 days of life, that requires resuscitation with positive ventilation and who either dies, has hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or requires intensive care. The incidence of SUPC is very low, and most often presents a negative prognosis. The BUB1B gene is a mitotic checkpoint of serine/threonine kinase B that encodes a protein crucial for maintaining the correct number of chromosomes during cell division...

Estimation of the exposure temperature of skeletal remains can be done by means of colourimetry and a previously published decision model for the colourimetric data, resulting in clusters that represent a range of exposure temperature. The method was based on thermally altered freshly burned human skeletal remains. However, in practice the origin or pre-burning condition of (possibly fragmentary) burned remains can be unknown. Further, in order to use the colourimetric analysis, and accompanying decision model, it is important to have a reference or test set...

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The use of less lethal weapons aims to mitigate civilian casualties caused by firearm use. However, due to numerous cases in which these weapons caused serious injuries, even lethal injuries, both legislation and the forensic field are interested in characterizing and regulating them better. In the forensic field, there is a lack of strong research about injury patterns of these weapons which makes it difficult to identify the type of weapon employed. In this study, the main objective was to characterize the injury pattern produced by the impact of the 9 mm P...

In living children, the use of a wide field fundus camera such as RetCam is the gold standard practice to document retinal haemorrhages in suspected cases of abusive head trauma (AHT). In case of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI), child abuse must be considered as a possible cause of death and an eye examination is required. However, no example of post-mortem fundus photograph (PMFP) of retinal haemorrhages related to AHT is yet available for clinicians.We report a SUDI case, with no external traumatic lesions or limb fractures, for which prompt PMFP showed retinal haemorrhages typical of AHT: child abuse was subsequently confirmed by the forensic investigation...

Taphonomy studies the environmental effects on remains from the time of deposition to the time of recovery and has been integrated into the field of forensic anthropology. The changes to skeletal remains are dependent on the method of disposal and the surrounding environment. This study focused on buried remains where the type and chemical composition of the soil and the microorganisms present need to be considered. The aim was to investigate the type, frequency, and correlations of the taphonomic alterations of buried domestic pigs...

The scientific literature contains little reliable data regarding new psychoactive substances and designer drugs, making it difficult to assess toxic blood levels and potentially lethal threshold. Here, we report a fatal co-intoxication involving two uncommon drugs ‒ alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT) and 5-(2-methylaminopropyl)-benzofuran (5-MAPB) ‒ combined with exposure to benzodiazepines, ephedrine, and norephedrine. AMT and 5-MAPB were quantified using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS-MS), revealing concentrations of AMT 4690 ng/mL and 5-MAPB 101 ng/mL in postmortem peripheral blood...

It is pivotal to avoid cross-sample contamination in forensic genetic laboratories and optimal cleaning protocols for the removal of DNA are essential. A survey was performed, and ten forensic genetic laboratories shared their cleaning protocols in pre-PCR and post-PCR laboratories. The cleaning frequencies on different surface areas were somewhat similar, whereas none of the laboratories used the same cleaning reagents. Therefore, the efficiencies of the cleaning protocol utilised were tested and compared...

The European Council of Legal Medicine (ECLM) is the body established in 1992 to represent practitioners forensic & legal medicine and is composed of delegates of the countries of the European Union (EU) and from other countries which form part of Europe to a current total of 34 member countries. The aims of this study were to determine the current status of undergraduate forensic & legal medicine teaching in the curriculum of medical studies in ECLM countries and to use the results of this study to determine whether it would be appropriate to develop new guidelines and standards for harmonising the content of undergraduate forensic medicine training across ECLM member countries...

To date South African forensic anthropologists are only able to successfully apply a metric approach to estimate population affinity when constructing a biological profile from skeletal remains. While a non-metric, or macromorphoscopic approach exists, limited research has been conducted to explore its use in a South African population. This study aimed to explore 17 cranial macromorphoscopic traits to develop improved methodology for the estimation of population affinity among black, white and coloured South Africans and for the method to be compliant with standards of best practice...

The decomposition of animal remains is a multifaceted process, involving ecological, biological, and chemical interactions. While the complexity is acknowledged through concepts like the necrobiome, it's unclear if this complexity is reflected in research. Appreciation of the complexity of decomposition is crucial for identifying sources of variation in estimations of time since death in medico-legal science, as well as building broader ecological knowledge of the decomposition process. To gain insights into the extent of multidisciplinary research in the field of decomposition science, we conducted an examination of peer-reviewed literature on four key drivers of variation: volatile organic compounds, microbes, drugs/toxins, and insects...

PURPOSE: The skeletal survey X-ray series is the current 'gold standard' when investigating suspected physical abuse (SPA) of children, in addition to a non-contrast computed tomography (CT) brain scan. This systematic literature review synthesised findings of published research to determine if low dose computed tomography (LDCT) could detect subtle fractures and therefore replace the skeletal survey X-ray series in the investigation of SPA in children aged under 3 years. METHODS: Five electronic databases and grey literature were systematically searched from their inception to 28 April 2022...

Commercial short tandem repeat (STR) kits exclusively contain human-specific primers; however, various non-human organisms with high homology to the STR kit's primer sequences can cause cross-reactivity. Owing to the proprietary nature of the primers in STR kits, the origins and sequences of most non-specific peaks (NSPs) remain unclear. Such NSPs can complicate data interpretation between the casework and reference samples; thus, we developed "NSPlex", an efficient method to discover the biological origins of NSPs...

Chile had a violent military coup (1973-1990) that resulted in 3,000 victims declared detained, missing or killed; many are still missing and unidentified. Currently, the Human Rights Unit of the Forensic Medical Service in Chile applies globally recognised forensic anthropological approaches, but many of these methods have not been validated in a Chilean sample. As current research has demonstrated population-specificity with extant methods, the present study aims to validate sex estimation methods in a Chilean population and thereafter establish population-specific equations...

BACKGROUND: The offender-victim spatial relationship is crucial in reconstructing a crime scene. The study aims to evaluate the spatial relationship of performing slashing attacks on a dummy using a Chinese kitchen knife, and thus to establish a scientific basis for crime scene reconstruction. METHODS: Twenty-four participants (12 males and 12 females) slashed a dummy's neck or chest using a kitchen knife, and the kinematic data were obtained using a three-dimensional motion capture system...

BACKGROUND: Teaching through role-plays is a preferred modality when certain behaviours or skills need to be taught. They provide a risk-free environment that simulates a real-life scenario. For a clinician, appearance in a Court of Law as an expert witness is a part of his/her legal obligation. OBJECTIVE: To explore the utility of Mock Court as an additional teaching tool for undergraduate medical students, in understanding and familiarizing with legal procedures, specifically the courtroom procedures...

High-risk coronary plaques (HRP) are characterized in clinical radiological imaging by the presence of low plaque attenuation, a napkin-ring sign (NRS), spotty calcifications (SC) and a positive remodeling index (RI). To evaluate if these signs are detectable in postmortem imaging by a multi-phase postmortem CT angiography (MPMCTA), a retrospective study of a series of autopsy well-documented coronary plaques related to sudden cardiac death (SCD) was performed. Then correlations between histological and radiological findings were described...

Forensic microbiology is rapidly emerging as a novel tool for human identification. The human microbiome, comprising diverse microbial communities including fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and viruses, is unique to each individual, offering a new dimension to forensic investigations. While traditional identification methods primarily rely on DNA profiling and fingerprint analysis, they face limitations when complete DNA or fingerprints profiles are unattainable or degraded. In this context, the microbial signatures of the human skin microbiome present a promising alternative due to their resilience to environmental stresses and individual-specific composition...

Conducting external post-mortem examinations is an essential skill required of physicians in various countries, regardless of their specialization. However, the quality of these examinations has been a subject of continuous debates, and notable errors were reviled. In response to these shortcomings, a virtual reality (VR) application was developed at Halle's medical department in Germany, focusing on the scene of discovery and the completion of death certificates. The initial trial of this VR application in 2020 involved 39 students and 15 early-career professionals...

Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are generally early colonisers of fresh cadavers, enabling the estimation of a minimum post-mortem interval (min PMI) based on an accurate aging of the oldest immature stages associated with a cadaver. In blow flies, the pupal stage and the subsequent development of the adult take place inside a protective case, the puparium, formed from the hardened and darkened cuticle of the third instar larva. Because the puparium is an opaque structure that shows virtually no external changes, qualitative analyses of the internal tissues can be very informative for determining reliable age-specific morphological markers...