6. Diabetic Death Bed: Post-Mortem Determination of Hypoglycaemia

1994 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Patel

The post-mortem biochemical determination of hypoglycaemia in the practice of forensic medicine is notoriously imprecise and attracts perennial criticisms, particularly from those who may be alien to the peculiarities of medical jurisprudence. There has been re-emphasis recently on the neuropathological pathoclisis ascribed to prolonged hypoglycaemia. Unfortunately, the value perceived is limited by pathognomonic unreliability owing to agonal multifactorial influences and rapidly fatal nocturnal hypoglycaemia. The predicament is oppressive to a consideration of preponderant evidence and an unpopular diagnosis of perimortem hypoglycaemia, unless audacious, may be precluded simply because the proof is difficult. This is likely to contribute to diagnostic under-estimation of enigmatic diabetic deaths. A suspected case of lethal nocturnal hypoglycaemia in a young diabetic on ‘animal’ insulin is presented to restore some perspective to the clinico-pathological deference for an endangered post-mortem diagnosis of hypoglycaemia inferred from minimal evidence.

2007 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. S56-S57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiri Sajdok ◽  
Alexander Pilin ◽  
Filip Auinger ◽  
Frantisek Pudil

2009 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 090513010017019-7
Author(s):  
Biagio Solarino ◽  
Giancarlo Di Vella ◽  
Thea Magrone ◽  
Felicita Jirillo ◽  
Angela Tafaro ◽  
...  

1966 ◽  
Vol 16 (01/02) ◽  
pp. 038-050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulla Hedner ◽  
Inga Marie Nilsson ◽  
B Robertson

SummaryThe plasminogen content was determined by a casein method in plasma and serum from 20 normal volunteers. The mean plasminogen content was found to be 10.1 ACU (the arbitrary caseinolytic unit defined in such a way that using a 3% casein solution and a digestion time of 20 min. at 37°C, 10 ACU gave an extinction of 0.300). No difference between serum and plasma regarding the plasminogen content was found.Plasminogen was determined in drained and drained plus washed clots prepared from 2 ml plasma. The highest values found in the drained clots were 0.9 ACU/clot and 0.2 ACU/clot in the drained plus washed clots.Plasminogen was also determined in drained and drained plus washed clots prepared from plasma with added purified plasminogen. The plasminogen was recovered in the washing fluid. According to these tests, then, purified added plasminogen is washed out of the clots.The plasminogen content of 20 thrombi obtained post mortem was also determined. The mean value was found to be 0.7 ACU/cm thrombus. Judging from our results, the “intrinsic clot lysis theory” is not the main mechanism of clot dissolution.


Author(s):  
Nina Sophia Mahlke ◽  
Silvia Renhart ◽  
Dorothea Talaa ◽  
Alexandra Reckert ◽  
Stefanie Ritz-Timme

AbstractAge at death estimation in cases of human skeletal finds is an important task in forensic medicine as well as in anthropology. In forensic medicine, methods based on “molecular clocks” in dental tissues and bone play an increasing role. The question, whether these methods are applicable also in cases with post-depositional intervals far beyond the forensically relevant period, was investigated for two “protein clocks”, the accumulation of D-aspartic acid (D-Asp) and the accumulation of pentosidine (Pen) in dentine. Eight teeth of skeletons from different burial sites in Austria and with post-depositional intervals between c. 1216 and c. 8775 years were analysed. The results of age at death estimation based on D-Asp and Pen in dentine were compared to that derived from a classical morphological examination. Age at death estimation based on D-Asp resulted consistently in false high values. This finding can be explained by a post-mortem accumulation of D-Asp that may be enhanced by protein degradation. In contrast, the Pen-based age estimates fitted well with the morphological age diagnoses. The described effect of post-mortem protein degradation is negligible in forensically relevant time horizons, but not for post-depositional intervals of thousands of years. That means that the “D-Asp clock” loses its functionality with increasing post-depositional intervals, whereas Pen seems to be very stable. The “Pen-clock” may have the potential to become an interesting supplement to the existing repertoire of methods even in cases with extremely long post-depositional intervals. Further investigations have to test this hypothesis.


1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Piette ◽  
G. De Schrijver

In order to appreciate more adequately chronic alcohol use by the deceased in the course of a medico-legal autopsy we studied the usefulness of a determination of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) activity in cadaver serum. Some preliminary tests were performed to check the post-mortem stability of this enzyme, the influence of post-mortem haemolysis upon enzyme determination, the influence of the sampling site upon the enzyme activity and the suitability of vitreous humour as an alternative body fluid for GGT determination. Secondly, correlations between GGT activity and the degree of fatty liver degeneration and fibrosis (both possibly alcohol-induced tissue lesions) were searched for. Finally, a comparison was made between strictly selected groups of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. We concluded that, keeping in mind the necessary precautions to avoid typical post-mortem fallacies, a GGT determination in cadaver serum provides a useful parameter for detecting chronic alcoholism at the forensic autopsy.


2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biagio Solarino ◽  
Giancarlo Di Vella ◽  
Thea Magrone ◽  
Felicita Jirillo ◽  
Angela Tafaro ◽  
...  

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Van Den Oever

Determining the exact moment of death in medicolegal cases is not possible since post-mortem changes of the human body are variable and often misjudged. The most reliable physical and biochemical methods of estimating the post-mortem interval are reviewed and the author tries to find out why, in spite of all the previous studies, which have often given good results, the individual methods are neither popular nor practical in routine forensic medicine cases. For greater accuracy in estimating the time of death further investigation should be carried out to find a suitable combination of some physical and biochemical tests complementary to the data produced by each method and preventing the rather large error range of each individual test.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Tozzo ◽  
Salvatore Scrivano ◽  
Matteo Sanavio ◽  
Luciana Caenazzo

The determination of the post-mortal interval (PMI) is an extremely discussed topic in the literature and of deep forensic interest, for which various types of methods have been proposed. The aim of the manuscript is to provide a review of the studies on the post-mortem DNA degradation used for estimating PMI. This review has been performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and the PRISMA Guidelines. Several analytical techniques have been proposed to analyse the post-mortem DNA degradation in order to use it to estimate the PMI. Studies focused mainly on animal models and on particular tissues. The results have been mixed: while on the one hand literature data in this field have confirmed that in the post-mortem several degradation processes involve nucleic acids, on the other hand some fundamental aspects are still little explored: the influence of ante and post-mortem factors on DNA degradation, the feasibility and applicability of a multiparametric mathematical model that takes into account DNA degradation and the definition of one or more target organs in order to standardize the results on human cases under standard conditions.


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