物证鉴定的能力验证

能力验证是物证鉴定质量保障体系的重要组成部分,可以非常有效的评估、监控和提高实验室物证鉴定能力和质量。本文论述了物证鉴定能力验证的主要方法、形式、类型和特点,以及在物证鉴定实验室质量管理中的具体应用,介绍了国外物证鉴定实验室参加能力验证活动的历史和现状,并提出在我国物证鉴定实验室广泛开展能力验证活动的思考。     

Computer-assisted systems for forensic pathology and forensic toxicology

A computer software, R?ttsBASE (RB), was developed for all forensic pathology units in Sweden and introduced in 1992. Simultaneously, a corresponding software, ToxBASE (TB), was developed for the Department of Forensic Toxicology, where all forensic toxicology in Sweden is managed. Both of the databases were created using dBASE IV, and the programming was carried out according to specifications from the staff at the forensic toxicology and forensic pathology units. since the development or RB and TB was coordinated, the systems can run together smoothly. The purpose of both systems was to automate the offices and to enable compilation of detailed statistics. Installation of Novell Netware and ISDN-connections (Integrated Service Digital Network) has enabled rapid communication between the units and easy compilation of nationwide statistics of forensic pathology and forensic toxicology. the systems offer a wide spectrum of reports and include a simple module for evaluation of the importance of the forensic efforts for th whole death investigation. The configuration of the softwares has also enabled processing of a large amount of related toxicological and autopsy data that in turn has yielded a base for compilation of toxicology interpretation lists. This article includes a summary of the features of the software and a discussion of its benefits and limitations.     

Postmortem forensic toxicology of trazodone

Trazodone is a popular antidepressant medication that has been available for approximately 30 years. It has a reputation as a safe drug with relatively few reported fatalities attributed solely to it. We review the pharmacology and forensic toxicology of trazodone and report toxicology and cause and manner of death in a series of 37 deaths in which trazodone was detected. Although the normal upper therapeutic blood concentration for trazodone is about 2 mg/L, fatalities are rarely attributed solely to it at blood concentrations below 9 mg/L. Considering the pharmacology of the drug, potential interactions between other drugs with serotonin reuptake properties need to be considered, as does the increased susceptibility to the toxic effects in patients with pre-existing heart disease. In the cases reviewed, none were attributed solely to trazodone, although trazodone was frequently present together with other serotonergic drugs, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like fluoxetine and sertraline. Ten cases had blood trazodone concentrations above 2 mg/L. Of these cases, trazodone played a primary role in the death of three subjects, with blood concentrations all greater than 9 mg/L. We confirm the conclusions of others that trazodone is a relatively safe drug except in massive overdose, although its toxicity may be influenced by the presence of other drugs and underlying pathophysiology.     

Importance of information in forensic toxicology.

Information in forensic toxicology plays a very important role. The forensic pathologist usually seeks toxicologic analyses on basis of the information available at the time of the medicolegal autopsy. Such information may be obtained from different sources: hospitals, authorities, relatives, friends, or neighbors of the deceased and, obviously, macroscopic findings at the time of the autopsy. In order to evaluate the relative importance of these different sources of information, the authors have studied, retrospectively, results of 580 postmortem examinations performed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Lisbon, wherein toxicologic analyses had been requested. These cases pertain to the years 1987 and 1988, but do not include alcohol determination in the blood in cases of traffic accidents. In 274 (47.4%) of the 580 cases, there were positive findings while in the remaining 306 (52.6%) findings were negative. In cases with positive findings, circumstances and factors, which may have influenced the pathologist's decision to request toxicologic analysis, are discussed. In more than half the cases, hospital information was the decisive factor, while in approximately 25% of the cases, autopsy findings were the justification. In contrast, it is worth mentioning that in approximately 45% of the cases with analytical negative results, requests were made, in cases of blank autopsies, for toxicologic analyses in order to exclude the possibility of poisoning. It is interesting to note that in the same proportion requests were justified on grounds of hospital information. Some of the factors that may explain this apparent discrepancy are discussed. Finally, the relevance of background information is emphasized at the level of the interpretation of analytical results, whether positive or negative.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

代谢组学及其在法医毒理学中的应用

代谢组学是上世纪90年代中期发展起来的研究细胞和生物体的所有代谢中间体和终产物的一门新兴学科。其研究对象一般为分子量在1 000Da以下的小分子。代谢组学通过对生物体系中的小分子化合物进行定性定量分析,解析生物体系的代谢途径并揭示内源性小分子化合物与毒性、疾病、生命活动规律等的相互关系。本文综述代谢组学的概况及其在法医毒理学中的应用现状,为相关研究和应用提供参考。     

Computer-assisted interpretation in forensic toxicology: morphine-involved deaths

Case data from 200 morphine-involved deaths (Spiehler, V. and Brown, R., Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 4, July 1987, pp. 906-916) were analyzed for patterns and relationships using artificial intelligence (AI) computer software. Case parameters were blood unconjugated morphine, blood, brain, and liver total morphine, sex, age, frequency of use, time of death after injection, cause of death, and presence of other drugs. The programs used were Expert 4 (Biosoft-Cambridge), BEAGLE (Warm Boot, Ltd.), and KnowledgeMaker (Knowledge Garden Inc.). Interpretation was defined as estimating the dose, response, and time after drug dosing. The AI programs were used to advise on time and response outcomes for cases, to calculate the probability of the estimate being true, to develop rules for interpretation of morphine-involved cases, and to diagram a decision tree. On known cases the AI programs were successful 70 to 90% of the time in classifying the cases as to response and time. No data on dose were available in this database. The success rate in individual cases was proportional to the program-estimated probability. All three programs found the case parameters of most value in predicting response to be blood unconjugated morphine, blood total morphine, and liver total morphine. The case data most useful in estimating time of death since drug injection were blood unconjugated morphine, percent unconjugated morphine in blood, and brain total morphine. The rule induction programs found that morphine overdoses were characterized by blood unconjugated morphine greater than 0.24 micrograms/mL, liver morphine greater than 0.50 to 0.75 micrograms/g, brain morphine greater than 0.08 micrograms/g or greater than blood unconjugated morphine, and percent blood unconjugated morphine greater than 37%. Rapid deaths were characterized by percent unconjugated morphine greater than 44 to 50%; blood unconjugated morphine, as a function of other drugs present, greater than 0.09 to 0.21 micrograms/mL; and brain total morphine greater than 0.16 to 0.22 micrograms/g. This work demonstrates that inexpensive AI programs commercially available for personal computers can be useful in interpretation in forensic toxicology.     

Fly larvae and their relevance in forensic toxicology

Toxicological analyses on a putrefied cadaver are sometimes difficult to perform because of the absence of blood and urine. In this study, fly larvae, being living material, are proposed as a new medium of investigation in forensic toxicology. Bromazepam and levomepromazine were identified and assayed in the remains of cerebral tissue, in the clavicle of a putrefied cadaver, and in the fly larvae found on and in the corpse.     

近十年法医毒物分析和法医毒理学研究热点统计分析

借助Bicomb 2.0软件及SPSS 19.0软件对近十年国内外法医毒物分析和法医毒理学的研究热点进行分析,结果表明国内研究热点可以分为5类:分类1为毒品和精神活性物质的提取方法和样品稳定性研究;分类2为镇静催眠药的代谢和死后分布研究;分类3为农药的快速检测方法开发;分类4为分析方法的完善和标准化研究;分类5为新型毒物γ-羟基丁酸和合成大麻素的检测方法研究。国际研究热点分为6类:分类1为传统精神活性物质、乙醇和样品稳定性的研究;分类2为芬太尼的分析研究;分类3为氰化物的检测和毒理学研究;分类4为新型精神活性物质的检测图库建立和分析方法开发;分类5为镇静催眠药的研究;分类6为丁烷及其引起的猝死案例的研究。同时,对近十年国际合作法医毒物学研究进行了网络可视化分析。     

MDMA心肌毒性的法医毒理学研究进展

3,4-亚甲基二氧基甲基苯丙胺(MDMA)是近年来在全世界,特别是亚洲地区公共娱乐场所流行性滥用的"摇头丸"的主要药物成分。MDMA主要作用于人体神经系统从而表现出各种神经系统症状。目前的实验研究发现,MDMA对人体多个系统具有毒性作用,其中对心血管系统的毒性损害作用较为显著。本文就近年来针对MDMA心肌毒性机制的法医毒理学研究进展进行综述,为进一步深入研究提供理论信息。     

毒物分析方法的确认

本文综述了毒物检验方法确认的研究进展,并对评价指标进行了讨论,为今后开展相关工作打下了基础。     

分子印迹技术在法庭毒物分析中的研究进展

分子印迹聚合物具有预识别性、高度选择性、实用性,已广泛应用在样本前处理中,可以选择性的识别复杂基质中低浓度目标物,提高检测灵敏度。本文旨在综述和探讨分子印迹技术的原理和在法庭科学领域毒物分析应用中的研究进展。     

The United Kingdom and Ireland association of forensic toxicologists forensic toxicology laboratory guidelines (2018)

In 2010, the United Kingdom and Ireland Association of Forensic Toxicologists (UKIAFT) created forensic toxicology laboratory guidelines. This represents a revision of those guidelines as a result of the changing toxicological and technical landscape.     

Extraction procedures for some common drugs in clinical and forensic toxicology.

The results of four extraction systems for 86 drugs are reported. These systems were investigated with the view to obtaining a rapid, reliable, and efficient extraction technique in clinical and forensic toxicology.     

Application of forensic toxicology to the problem of domestic violence.

The role of the forensic toxicologist in helping to determine causes of death or in aiding in the resolution of "driving under the influence" or similar cases is well known and clearly understood. Less clearly defined is the position of the forensic toxicologist vis-à-vis other socially significant problems. However, as the 21st century approaches, it is worth considering how forensic toxicology can help in unraveling some of these problems. The problem of violence between intimates--that is, domestic violence--is a social problem in which it has been long felt that alcohol has played a part. Until now, though, no carefully controlled toxicological studies have been conducted to substantiate this or to determine whether other drug use is associated with domestic violence. At the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office, toxicological data from both the victim and the suspect in 20 cases of domestic violence that ended in homicide have been gathered. It was found that alcohol or other drugs or a combination of these factors was invariably present in the suspect, the victim, or both. The implications of these results and how they can be used to develop a toxicological strategy to help reduce the most serious consequences of domestic violence are presented.     

Visualization in testing a volatile memory forensic tool

We have developed a tool to extract the contents of volatile memory of Apple Macs running recent versions of OS X, which has not been possible since OS X 10.4. This paper recounts our efforts to test the tool and introduces two visualization techniques for that purpose. We also introduce four metrics for evaluating physical memory imagers: correctness, completeness, speed, and the amount of “interference” an imager makes to the state of the machine. We evaluate our tool by these metrics and then show visualization using dotplots, a technique borrowed from bioinformatics, can be used to reveal bugs in the implementation and to evaluate correctness, completeness, and the amount of interference an imager has. We also introduce a visualization we call the density plot which shows the density of repeated pages at various addresses within an image. We use these techniques to evaluate our own tool, Apple’s earlier tools, and compare physical memory images to the hibernation file.     

The role of psychological testing in forensic assessment

Despite the apparent widespread use of psychological tests in evaluations performed by psychologists to assist legal decision makers, there has been little critical but balanced examination of the appropriate parameters for the forensic use of such tests. The following discussion examines the nature of legal decision making, and concludes that the primary legal criterion for the adminissibility of psychological testing isrelevance to the immediate legal issue or to some underlying psychological construct. Assuming thataccuracy is a more consistent concern for psychologists performing such evaluations, the criticisms of various commentators are discussed. Some criticisms appear appropriate and are incorporated into a set of proposed guidelines for the use of psychological tests in forensic contexts. Other criticisms appear misplaced, however, and the call for a whole sale ban on psychological testing in the forensic context is rejected.