The mechanism of fatal cardiopulmonary injury caused by a blow from a golf club

In the course of a scuffle, a youth of 18 years was struck a single blow across the chest with a golf club. He collapsed dead on the spot. At autopsy, a precisely located and highly distinctive patterned imprint abrasion of the precordial region was revealed providing an excellent match with the weapon. The heart showed multiple internal ruptures and there was a laceration of the lingula of the left lung. Injury to the chest wall was confined to the soft tissues, the rib cage and sternum being intact. We postulate a novel mechanism to explain the cardiac rupture.     

Changes in the hemoglobin absorption spectra of blood stains preserved under combined environmental exposure conditions

Kinetics of changes in absorption spectra (240-650 nm) of aqueous extracts from bloodstains of considerable age (11 years) was studied. It was stated that at early storage time modification of globin residue goes parallel to oxidation of haem residue and at continuous time (more than 1 year) of solid phase storage of blood films considerable damage of protein and haem with their subsequent destruction occurs. But intensity of these processes is likely to depend on factors of initial environmental exposure of fresh bloodstains.     

An improved method for semen alpha-L-fucosidase typing--distribution in the Wuhan population of China

An improved method for the separation of the genetic variants of alpha-L-fucosidase in human semen is described. The method involves, isoelectric focusing in ultrathin-layer PAG containing a mixture of ampholines, pH 5-7 and pH 3.5-9.5, and separator HEPES. The Fu pattern obtained is simple, easy to interpret, and reproducible. The occurrence of fucosidase phenotypes in 189 semen samples from the population of Wuhan was investigated, and the frequencies of the Fu alleles were calculated.     

1H-NMR studies of postmortem biochemical changes in rat skeletal muscle

1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been applied to the study of postmortem biochemical changes in perchloric acid extracts of rat skeletal muscle. Several metabolites have been detected and the dependence upon the postmortem time has been considered. The simultaneous quantitative determination of metabolites showing up at very low and very high fields has been suggested to yield a satisfactory delineation of the thanatochronology.     

Age estimation from the structure of adult human teeth: review of the literature.

The literature on age estimation from the structure of adult human teeth is reviewed. Several anatomic changes of teeth have been shown to be valuable in age determination, but there is still controversy concerning the accuracy of cemental annulation. It is believed that improvements in age estimation can be made using direct measurement rather than scoring systems.