Thanatogenesis in poisoning with psychopharmaceuticals

Discussed in the paper are thanatologically significant morphological signs in intoxication with some of psychic drugs. It was demonstrated that, in intoxication with azaleptin, phenazepam and aminazin, death comes mostly from affection of the brain including its edema and irreversible severe changes of neurons. In intoxication with tizercin, benzodiazepines and barbiturates, cardiac thanatogenesis as fibrillation of heart chambers combined with foci of myocytolysis. Sodium oxybutyrate brings about vascular collapse with subsequent development of fibrillation of heart chambers and of pulmonary edema. Intoxication with amitriptyline causes naturally necrotic nephrosis entailing uremic pneumonia and edema of the brain and heart.     

Determination of a mechanism of the coming of death by morphological methods in strangulation mechanical asphyxia

Described in the paper are morphological data characterizing the tempo and type of thanatogenesis in strangulation asphyxia. The cerebral thanatogenesis was shown to prevail in mechanical asphyxia. The results of determination of a degree of hydration of the brain by drying its samples are described. Medullary substance was demonstrated to be hypohydrated in such death.     

The ultrastructural indices of the morphofunctional state of the heart in acute and chronic alcoholic intoxication

Morphofunctional myocardial characteristics in subjects who died of acute and chronic alcoholic intoxication were studied at ultrastructural level. The resulting new data enhance the level of diagnosis concerning the cause of death, the grounds of thanatogenesis. Possibilities for using the results of investigation in scientific and practical work are shown.     

Morphofunctional reaction of human adrenals at the pulmonary variation of thanatogenesis

A comparative morphometric study of male adrenals was conducted in case pulmonary thanatogenesis. A response was registered, it was associated with a dominating weight of the left adrenal (LA) and of its cortical substance over the similar parameters of the RA. The intensity and the time of the onset of reactions in different LA morphofunctional zones were found to be different in mechanical asphyxia and in carbon-monoxide intoxication. It is suggested that the occurring changes can reflect the action mechanism and result from the embryogenesis-conditioned specificity of functioning of paired organs.     

The clinico-morphological toxicodynamics of organophosphate insecticide poisonings

The article deals with investigation of dynamics of clinical morphological pattern in acute poisoning with organophosphorous insecticides. For this purpose all specific and non-specific effects of this chemical disease are classified according to the moment of their occurrence after poison exposure. Morphological equivalent of specific clinical manifestations at different stages of thanatogenesis of this poisoning was determined. It was shown that intensity of pathological process or specific density of toxic effects per time-unit is a very important criterium for assessment of severity and prognosis of poisoning.     

Assessment of hemorrhagic syndrome of the digestive tract in acute poisoning evaluation

Morphologic features and differential diagnostical signs of hemorrhagic syndrome variants in the digestive tract in acute poisonings are described. Medicolegal value, conditions of occurrence as well as some possibilities to prevent gastro-intestinal hemorrhage occurring due to defects when providing medical care in case of poisoning are presented.     

The forensic medical diagnosis of intoxication of alcohol surrogates by morphological findings

The pathomorphology of intoxication of alcohol surrogates is described. A high frequency rate of DIC-syndrome is shown for the condition. A majority of thrombi accumulates at places with the highest concentrations of toxic substances as well as at those places, through which poisoning substances are brought out of the body, i.e. in the liver (since toxic substances are introduced perorally) and kidneys. Thrombi were detected in all internals, including the brain, in lethal intoxication. The immediate toxic effect from methanol and from higher spirits can matter in the genesis of changes, including acute swelling and chromatolysis with subsequent cell death. Exclusively cerebral or coagulopathic-cerebral types of thanatogenesis were registered in studied case of intoxication.     

Hypophyseal damage in persons with cerebrocranial injuries and who died in the hospital

The pituitary was examined in patients with craniocerebral injuries who died in hospital in various periods after treatment. Control group consisted of victims died at the site of accident. The results indicate the significance of examining the pituitary in craniocerebral injuries for the diagnosis of thanatogenesis, particularly in patients died in hospital. Causes of traumatic changes in the organ were determined, highly incident in the practice of forensic medical experts: directly during injury, as a result of skull bone fractures; during development of dislocation syndrome and in disorders of blood and lymph circulation in the brain matter; resultant from augmenting traumatic edema of the brain.     

Histomorphometric indices of the pancreas in intoxication with alcohol and narcotics

The results of histomorphometric examinations of the pancreas in drug- and alcohol-addiction as well as in acute intoxications are described. They show that, in chronic alcoholic intoxication as compared with opiomania, there are more pronounced interlobular sclerosis and lipomatosis, which is manifested by an enlarged middle lobe of the stroma (containing fat and connective tissue fibers), by a higher density of islands of Langerhans and by their higher sectional area. Autolysis and edema of the stroma are more severe in an acute intoxication with drugs than in other cases of fatal outcome. A possibility is demonstrated to differentiate between various types of the so-called long-term exogenous intoxication and to discriminate between different types of thanatogenesis typical of various cases of acute intoxications. Data are presented that demonstrate the advantage of the quantitative analysis of histological preparations over the qualitative one.     

The traces of smokeless gunpowder

The experimental investigation resulted in detection of new specific and characteristic signs of smokeless powder. Additional tests for determination and differential diagnosis of smokeless powder variants were suggested.     

Blood and liver monoamine oxidases in fatal alcoholic intoxication]

Biochemical studies of monoamine oxygenases (MAO) were studied in albino rats and in subjects dead from ethanol poisoning, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and coronary heart disease. Experiments demonstrated that chronic alcoholization leads to increase in the levels of both types of MAO (A and B), the longer the alcoholization, the more pronounced the increase. Intake of high ethanol doses in the course of regular alcohol abuse involves a drop in MAO activity (by 1.9-2-2 times). Study of MAO helps detect chronic alcoholization and differentiate it from coronary heart disease and alcoholic cardiomyopathy and thus make an objective conclusion about the cause of death and thanatogenesis.     

The clinico-morphological basis for a diagnosis of diffuse axonal brain damage in head trauma

The most typical neurologic signs and variants of computer-tomographic cerebral picture in diffuse axonal lesion of the brain are presented. Dynamics of pathomorphologic changes depending on duration of posttraumatic periods is detected.     

Characteristics of morphological manifestations of anaphylactic shock in response to the administration of pharmaceutical preparations encountered in the practice of forensic medical expert-histologist

The authors report the results of a forensic medical investigation of 6 cases of death associated with the administration of pharmaceutical products documented by forensic medical experts of the Russian Centre of Forensic Medical Expertise. The results of the study are compared with the clinical data and summarized using the methods of tanatogenetic analysis. The following main clinical variants of iatrogenic anaphylactic shock (IAS) are distinguished: bronchospastic IAS (n = 1), asphyxic IAS (n = 1), hemodynamic IAS (n = 3), and combined (bronchospastic plus hemodynamic) IAS (n = 1). The signs of all these variants are described allowing for their diagnostics and differentiation diagnostics. These data can be used for the purpose of forensic medical diagnostics and elucidation of the mechanisms of tanatogenesis.     

Histomorphometric characteristic of human brain in acute alcoholic intoxication

Different brain sections were studied in 20 subjects, who died of ethanol intoxication and in 14 subjects who died of injuries of the heart and main vessels, in order to detect histological changes in the brain and for the purpose of defining spatial and quantitative ratios between cerebral tissue structures in alcoholic intoxication. Different histological, stereometric and morphometric tools were made use of. It was demonstrated that, in alcoholic intoxication, there occur severe disorders of the circulation with affection of vessels in the brain; there are also dystrophic and necrotic changes in neurocytes, glial cells and white substance. The square of neurons shrinks due to death of some of them in the cortex of hemispheres, thalamus and cerebellum. As for the medulla, they are more resistant, there, to ethanol. The diameter of capillaries in the studied brain sections diminishes due to a reduced tonus of cerebral arteries; the quantity of such vessels increases within a standard area, which is conditioned by the compensatory opening of reserve capillaries. All this can be important in dealing with issues of thanatogenesis and of forensic medical diagnosis in death of alcoholic intoxication.     

Pressure on the neck calculated for any point along the ligature.

It had been experimentally shown that disfunction of the airways, major arteries and veins occurs in neck compression due to the violence of different strengths. These differences in the vulnerability of the neck anatomical structures determine the sequence and dynamics of the vital function disorders in strangulation, as well as its morphological features. The purpose of this study was to calculate the value of specific pressure P, which affects the neck along the ligature. Mathematical modeling method was used. Cylinder served the model of the human neck. It was found that P-value is directly proportional to the loop tension and inversely proportional to the radius of the curvature and neck-ligature contact area. Thus, in horizontal neck encirclement the strangulation groove forms a circumference, and P-value is invariable along the loop, as in typical cases of homicidal strangulation. In oblique position of the loop it makes an ellipse with changeable curve curvature, as in most hangings. As the formulas and graphs presented show, the increasing deflection of the loop towards the transverse plane results in increase in P-amplitude, mostly at the expense of its minimal indices (up to hundred per cent) rather than maximal ones (within 20% range). At the same time there are narrow zones along the loop, where the P-value remains almost invariable irrespective of loop deflection degree. The results of the study may be useful for investigation of thanatogenesis and pathomorphology of strangulation, including its experimental modeling.     

用超薄层聚丙烯酰胺凝胶等电聚焦法调查西藏藏族群体GC亚型频率报道

作者采用超薄层聚丙烯酰胺凝胶等电聚焦法检测了142例西藏地区无关藏族青年男女GC亚型,发现6例变异型,其中2例1A变异;1例1c变异;3例1F1S-2变异,这种新的变异型,迄今国内外尚未见报道。GC亚型的基因频率分别为:GC*1F=0.3921、GC*1S=0.3705、GC*2=0.2266、GC*1A=0.0072、GC*1C=0.0036。个人识别机率为0.8079;非父排除率为0.3430。     

纤维连接蛋白额外结构域异型体的法医学应用

纤维连接蛋白额外结构域原为胚胎时期高表达的同源结构域,多数组织随发育至成年后在基因转录后加工过程中已逐渐剪去该区域,然而近年来发现,在机体损伤、疾病、肿瘤等状态下此“幼稚型”片段重新高表达,其功能的特殊性已引起广泛关注。在法医学损伤时间研究中应用此特性,使研究指标从量变型转为质变型,具有极强的实用意义。     

Sequence characterization of microvariant alleles at DYS627 and DYS458

Y chromosome short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) have been widely used in genetic applications and forensic casework. Recently, we found two intermediate alleles, the DYS627 allele 24.1 and the DYS458 allele 15.3, from Chinese Han population. The two allelic variants have not been recorded by the YHRD database. We have examined the molecular structure of these allelic variants by Sanger sequencing. The results showed that this intermediate allele at DYS627 was confirmed as 24.1, the sequence of which showed a base “A” insertion in the 13th repeat unit, and the intermediate allele at DYS458 was confirmed as 15.3, the sequence of which showed a base “G” deletion in the 12th repeat unit. This may be important for individual identification and paternal kinship testing. Besides, more allelic variants detected can be enriched in the Y-STR database.     

Rapid phenotyping of the group specific component by immunofixation on cellulose acetate

Determination of the genetically controlled variants of the polymorphic Gc system was achieved by electrophoresis on cellulose acetate membranes followed by immunofixation with a specific anti-Gc antiserum. The method is applicable to plasma, whole hemolyzed blood, and dried blood. Multiple specimens can be analyzed simultaneously within 60 to 80 min. The cellulose acetate electrophoretogram of the Gc variants remains as a permanent record.