Age-at-death estimation based on the study of frontosphenoidal sutures

Determination of age at the time of death based on the observation of cranial sutures has led to numerous studies with sometimes contradictory results. The initial hypothesis being that suture closure is part of an age-related physiological process, the conflicting results have been interpreted by various authors as secondary to the choice of sutures, under the co-existing influence of pathological factors or genetic factors, or even independent of age. Despite these differences, macroscopic methods remain much used in anthropology and in forensic medicine. In our work, we evaluated the value of the degree of closure of the frontosphenoidal suture in estimating age at death of mature subjects, with the secondary objective of establishing a linear regression which could be used in routine practice. The study concerned bone specimens from individuals whose age, sex and medical history were known. Macroscopic observation was carried out on the ectocranial and endocranial sides according to four stages of closure previously defined. 290 sutures were taken from a population of whom two-thirds were men. The method can be repeated and reproduced and the regression established shows the confidence range for average error to be +/-1.5 years. While this result is of interest in terms of precision in prediction for a group of people, the prediction range is too great (+/-23 years) to be applicable to a single individual as part of a forensic procedure.     

Prevalence of psychoactive substances in truck drivers in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (France)

A previous study conducted in 1995 showed that psychoactive drug use by workers was higher in safety/security workstations than in the rest of the labour force. In order to verify this finding, we conducted a new study in 2003-2004 in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, restricted to truck drivers. The aim of this study was to allow harmonizing the professional practice of the occupational physicians, proposing drug prevention and drug testing policies, validating the analytical methods and the guidelines in case of positive testing results. One thousand truck drivers were studied. Urines were tested for amphetamines, cannabinoids, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine and methadone by immunoassay. Urine ethanol determinations were performed by an ADH method. Positive urines for drugs of abuse, methadone or buprenorphine were then tested by gas chromatography or liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Out of the 1000 drivers, cannabinoids were detected in 85 cases, opiates in 41 cases, amphetamines in 3 cases and cocaine in only one case. Buprenorphine was detected in 18 cases, methadone in 5 cases and benzodiazepines in 4 cases. Urine ethanol was positive in 50 cases. We found only one case with 6-monoacetylmorphine. Other positive opiates were metabolites of antitussives. The relatively low number of benzodiazepine positive urines could be explained by the lack of sensitivity of the test we used. All these results confirm those of the previous study for cannabinoids and ethanol in safety/security workstations. Positive results for methadone and buprenorphine are eight times higher than in the general population. In conclusion, the authors think that it will be of a great interest to test urine of truck drivers for other classes of psychoactive drugs, using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method.