Suicidal Death by Nicotine Poisoning / 대한법의학회지

Nicotine is a water-soluble alkaloid extracted from tobacco plants, and most frequently encountered in snuff, chewing tobacco, cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco or in a limited number of pesticides. Nicotine overdose or poisoning might be serious or fatal and lead to death; caused by cardiovascular arrest, respiratory muscle paralysis, and/or central respiratory failure due to its toxic effect. Suicide by nicotine ingestion has been rarely reported due to emetic response. We present a case of suicidal nicotine poisoning. A 56-year-old man was found dead and the postmortem examination revealed no injury or disease. We confirmed a high concentration of nicotine in the toxicological test. Through scene investigation, we determined this case as a suicidal nicotine poisoning.

Accidental Hanging in Children / 대한법의학회지

Accidental hanging in infancy and early childhood is not common and the autopsy findings have not been well-known. We experienced five cases of accidental hanging in children in a variety of situations. All cases were concluded as accidental hanging after a comprehensive examination based on the death scene investigation, autopsy findings, and investigation of their background and past history. Two cases happened at slides in a playground and in a kindergarten, the other cases related with by various kinds of cords in their house. As it is not always possible to predict every dangerous circumstance, these cases will be helpful to prevent the cases of accidental hanging.

Application of Korean Mechanical 3D Bone Model to the MADYMO(R) / 대한법의학회지

MADYMO(R) (Mathematical Dynamic Models) is a computer software with a multibody dynamics solver, which can be employed to reconstruct and interpret dynamic motions of the human body in impacts. The human model of the software is composed of many ellipsoidal structures, which makes it possible to interpret dynamic whole-body motions and calculate applied forces to human body parts. However, this model has some disadvantage to interpret injuries of the smaller body parts such as ribs, vertebral bodies or intervertebral discs. After achieving the finite element bone model produced by CT and software BIONIX BODYBUILDER(R) (finite element modeller), we tried to import this model into the MADYMO(R) and parts of the human bone model were successfully imported to it. Importing of the whole bone model was, however, impossible because of the numerous elements. The coming experiments need to reduce the number of elements in the whole human bone model and incorporate ligaments, tendons and muscles into each separated part of bone models.