Rapid determination of spermatozoa from cotton sweb by soaking with detergent solution.

The area on a cotton swab with a suspected seminal stain was cut out as a small piece and put into a small test tube (10x75mm.). Ten it was soaked with a detergent solution which was simply prepared from 1 gm of detergent powder (any brand on the market) dissolved in about 100 ml. distilled water. After strongly stirring the solution for a few minutes, it was filtered. The resulting clear solution was then ready for use. A bamboo rod was inserted into the tube with the cotton piece compressed and crushed on it for about 1 minute. (It was expected that the spermatozoa would detach from cotton fibres and sink into the solution.) The small amount of solution in the bottom of the tube was transferred to a microscopic slide and allowed to dry. After staining the residue using modified hematoxylene eosin technique, the slide was ready for examination to detect spermatozoa under the microscope. Using this technique, the authors found 200 spermatozoa-positive specimens out of 400 vaginal swebs from sexual assault victims. The identification of spermatozoa using this technique is easy because of the quantity of spermatozoa found in a short amount of time. The detergent did not interfere with the characteristics or staining properties of the spermatozoa in this series. This technique seems to offer similar accuracy to those of other technique. The advantage of this technique is its simplicity and the fact that it requires no special reagents as well.

An analysis of victims of sexual assault attending Siriraj Hospital.

Two-hundred eighteen out-patients records of victims of sexual assault who were treated at the traumatic unit of Siriraj Hospital during 1989 were studied. Personal history data, the findings of physical examinations as well as laboratory results were kept in a computerised system. An analysis of the data revealed the following: 1. The number of victims during the one-year period were included among 555 cases seen at the Police General Hospital, which indicated that the incidence of sexual crime in Bangkok Metropolis is rather high when compared with the number of sexual offences tried in court. This would mean that some offenders are not apprehended or that some victims refuse to report rape to the police, or among those who do, subsequently withdraw the allegations. All victims in this series are female and about one third of them fall into the age group below 15 years, which means that they should have had absolute protection under law against sexual abuse. The vast majority of victims were 16-20 years of age. 2. About 40 percent of the victims were students and about 75 percent of the victims over 15 years of age were single. Most of the crimes took place at home. Particulary among the victims under 15 years of age, 84 percent of the crimes took place at home. There was a correlation in the offender-victim relationship, which showed that 84 percent of the offenders in this group were acquaintances of the victims. 3. Medical evidence such as marks of violence on the victims’ body and genital trauma each were found in about 11 percent of the cases. Laboratory results the finding of spermatozoa in the vagina and/or acid phosphatase test using vaginal swabs were positive in about 53 percent of the cases. However, such evidence was related to the time that had elapsed since the criminal act. If the victim was examined 72 hours or more after the event, no medical evidences at all could be found. 4. Concerning offender-victim relationship, our series showed that most of the offenders were acquaintances; strangers accounted for only about 14 percent of the raoists.

Rapid microscopic determination of spermatozoa from seminal stain by mean of cellophane tape technique.

The authors have worked on a technique using pressure sensitive or sticky tape for determination of spermatozoa from a seminal stain. By simply pressing the scotch tape on the stain or gently touching a cotton swab stain to the sticky surface of the tape spermatozoa from the stain can be transferred to the sticky surface. Nest the sticky surface of the tape is covered with a microscopic slide. Third, one end of the tape is firmly fixcal with an adhesive paper band and set up when the slide is vertically out into a coping jar for staining. During the staining process the lower part of the tape may partially free itself from the slide. The modified haematoxylene eosin staining method is recommended. After staining, press the whole tape firmly on the slide in order to get rid of any small air bubbles underneath. Keep the slide dry and in warm place and examine directly under microscope for determination of spermatozoa. This slide does not necessary need any cover glass on it. Comparing yhis new technique with NH4OH soaking of the stain, this technique shows good reliability.