先天性离子通道缺陷造成的心源性猝死研究进展

先天遗传引起的心肌细胞离子通道疾病可引起恶性心律失常,导致患者的晕厥、心脏骤停甚至猝死,而在对这些疾病进行病理学死因鉴定时,常因无阳性发现而缺少科学依据。随着现代分子生物学技术的发展,陆续发现了多种可导致离子通道疾病发病的突变基因。本文针对导致此类疾病中较常见的长QT综合征、短QT综合征、Brugada综合征以及儿茶酚胺敏感性多形性室性心动过速等类型,综述相关突变基因的研究进展,以期为相关研究和鉴定提供参考。     

侵权死亡赔偿制度中遗产的确定

侵权死亡赔偿制度在我国民法理论界和具体立法规定中一直存有争议，当这一制度和遗产继承问题发生交集时，更加剧了司法实践的困惑。侵权死亡赔偿的各个项目是否属于遗产，取决于主张损失赔偿的权利主体．如果是针对死者的相关损失的赔偿．则应作为遗产由其继承人继承，如果赔偿的对象是死者的近亲属或其他人，则不属于遗产，不应按继承处理。     

日本的死刑执行公开制度——兼论死刑执行信息公开的限度

日本古代死刑执行经历了由公开到限制公开的过程,二战之后,日本政府对于死刑案件采取了更为保密的措施,当时日本的死刑制度处于机密状态。2010年8月28日,日本法务省首次向新闻媒体公开死刑执行的刑场,这一做法并没有公开死刑执行的过程,是死刑执行信息适度公开的一大创举。     

Delimitation of the time of death by immunohistochemical detection of thyroglobulin

To improve the possibilities to delimit the time of death after longer laytime it was examined if this is possible by immunohistochemical detection of thyroglobulin. The results show that in our examination material the colloid and the follicular cells of the thyroid glands of up to 5-day-old corpses produce a positive immunoreaction towards thyroglobulin in all cases whereas none of the corpses older than 13 days show such a reaction. This means that in case of a negative immunoreaction the time of death can be assumed to lie more than 6 days before the autopsy. The fact that a negative immunoreaction occurrs consistently after 13 days leads to the conclusion that when thyroglobulin has been stained in a specimen, the death of the respective person must lie a maximum of 12 days earlier, whereby these time-limits may change in considerably different surrounding conditions.     

Protecting the living: Managerialism and professional turf wars in risk regulatory death investigations

This paper demonstrates how general trends in the management of public institutions, and a specific turf war between the doctors and lawyers in Ontario, Canada, have combined to shape an important risk regulatory decisionmaking process: the coroner's inquest. Drawing on ethnographic evidence, I show how the priorities of managerialism, and the collateral effects of physician coroners battling with lawyers, have reduced the number of public inquests convened in Ontario by 80 per cent over a 20‐year period. Where many public safety decisions affecting the province's legal, policy, and physical environments were once made at public inquests, they appear now more likely to be made in private. The paper examines the implications of reduced public participation in the analysis of, and response to, death.     

Lethal manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus in a forensic context

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune connective tissue disorder that affects multiple organs. While the clinical manifestations may vary in intensity over time and be associated with chronic disease, occasional cases occur where sudden and unexpected death has occurred. Cardiovascular disease is common, with accelerated atherosclerosis, intravascular thrombosis associated with antiphospholipid syndrome, and hypertensive cardiomegaly. Vasculitis with superimposed thrombosis may result in critical reduction in blood to vital organs, such as the heart and brain with infarction. Mesenteric ischemia may be caused by vasculitis, thrombosis, and accelerated atherosclerosis and may result in lethal intestinal infarction. Other diverse causes of sudden death include myocarditis, epilepsy, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary thromboembolism, and sepsis. The autopsy evaluation of such cases requires careful examination of all organs with extensive histological sampling to include blood vessels, and microbiological sampling for bacteria, viruses, and fungi.     

Significant association of TH01 allele 9.3 and SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) constitutes a considerable percentage of infant death of unknown etiology. Individual catecholamine response variation is suspected to play a role in SIDS. TH01 is a tetrameric short tandem repeat marker in the tyrosine hydroxylase gene, which regulates gene expression and catecholamine production with allele 9.3 exerting a particularly strong effect on noradrenaline production. We investigated in an age-controlled study the TH01 allele frequencies in 127 cases of SIDS and 406 control cases to assess whether in SIDS cases a distinct TH01 allele distribution could be determined as has been reported by a previous study. We found that genotypes containing one or two 9.3 alleles were significantly more frequent in SIDS patients (58.2%) than in control subjects (48.4%, p=0.038), whereas all other alleles were more frequent in the control subjects. Our findings support the notion that there exists a significant association between TH01 gene configuration and SIDS.     

Essential medicolegal death investigation services: standardization of a survey instrument based on the Essential Public Health Services

The National Academy of Sciences recommends that states assess the performance of medicolegal death investigation agencies. To aid in performance assessment, we adapted an instrument based on the CDC's 10 Essential Public Health Services by translating the terminology to that of essential medicolegal death investigation services. This produced a survey that could be used to standardize reporting practices and services of agencies. To validate the instrument, a stratified random sample of 12 death investigation chiefs in 12 states was interviewed. This sample represented both medical examiner and coroner jurisdictions within the varying medicolegal structures. A cognitive testing process elicited how well participants could respond to and interpret the survey questions. The response was favorable in that the respondents agreed that given specific revisions toward question clarification, the instrument would be a useful and relevant tool for assessing system performance.     

窦房结中央动脉狭窄与心源性猝死

近年来国内外学者相继报道由单纯窦房结中央动脉狭窄引起的猝死。本文就窦房结中央动脉的解剖、组织学特点、病变特点进行综述,探讨窦房结动脉狭窄引起猝死的机制,以期为相关法医病理学死因鉴定提供理论基础。     

Macroscopic observations of the effects of varying fresh water pH on bone

Little is known about the decomposition of remains in aquatic environments of varying pH, and even less is known about the specific effects of these environments on bone. Bovine bones were placed in solutions of pH 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14 and observed over a period of 1 year. All solutions eventually removed or dissolved the soft tissues from the external surface of the bone. The pH 7 and pH 10 solutions had little effect on the bone, but the other solutions affected the bone to varying degrees. Extreme pH levels were the most destructive, while more moderate pH levels had lesser but significant and interesting effects. Empirical data on postmortem aquatic changes may be extremely useful in forensic contexts for both improving time since death estimates and also for providing better information to underwater recovery experts thereby potentially increasing the quantity and quality of remains recovery.