An examination of gastric content characteristics by naked eye to estimate the time of death.

The purpose of this research was to study the estimated time of death using naked eye examination of the gastric content characteristics. To our knowledge, such research has not been documented in Thailand. The study samples were collected from cadavers on which autopsies had been performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine Siriraj Hospital from April 2001 to December 2002. All 120 bodies had had accurately documented the time of death and relatives or witnesses who could give proper details of the subjects’ last meal. After the autopsy and examination of the gastric contents by naked eye, the findings were categorized into 5 groups as follows : Group 1 : Can specify the type of food. The interval of time from last meal to death was 0.25 – 3.00 hours : X = 1.20, SD = 0.74. Group 2 : Very thick contents and can identify the composition of food. The interval of time after last meal to death was 0.75 – 5.00 hours : X = 2.59, SD = 0.86. Group 3 : Very thick contents but cannot specify the type of food. The interval of time after last meal to death was 3.50 – 6.5 hours : X = 4.16, SD = 0.81. Group 4 : Mixed thick and watery contents and cannot specify the type of food. The interval of time after last meal to death was 3.50 – 5.50 hours : X = 4.69, SD = 0.65. Group 5 : Watery contents and cannot specify the type of food. The interval of time from last meal to death was 6.00 – 8.00 hours : X = 6.96, SD = 0.81. The results of this research may be useful for estimating the time of death (in addition to other factors, e.g. rigor mortis). There are some limitations to this study and therefore, further research is recommended.

Pulmonary fat embolism in trauma without fracture.

Frozen sections of lung tissue from 60 cases of severe trauma (no bone fracture) with sign of adult respiratory distress syndrome, were examined for pulmonary emboli and compared with 20 cases of natural death without trauma. The results showed low grade pulmonary emboli in 10 of the trauma cases, but none was found in the control cases. Though fat embolism is present in many surgical and medical conditions unrelated to trauma, in our investigation, non traumatic fat embolization could not be found. The focus of our study was to show that fat embolism is an antemortem reaction and may be the cause of death. Also the interval after trauma before death is a factor in fat embolization. In comparison with trauma with fracture, the incidence and also the grade of violence is many ties lower.

A study of road traffic accident patient in Bangkok.

The cases of 404 road traffic accident patients from 4 hospitals in Bangkok have been studied. The ratio between male to female was about 20:1. Most patients were between 21 and 30 years old and 83.42% were below 40 year old. Most accidents happened between 01.00 am and 4.00 am, some between 8.00 pm and 12.00 pm. Most of the victims were drivers (63.12%), 15.59% were passengers and 7.92% were pedestrians. Most of the vehicles involved were motorcycles (58.67%). The commonest injuries were to the head and face (44.48%), leg and head (35.26%) and trunk (4.86%). Over half of the patients tested positive for alcohol in the blood (55.69%), 50.25% of these patients had alcohol concentration over 50 mg.% and a further 22.27% had concentration of 50-150 mg.

Relationship of blood and breath alcohol concentration in traffic victims.

A study of relationship of blood and breath alcohol Concentration in 120 patients in traffic victims in the Division of Trauma, Department of Surgery, Siriraj Hospital, The blood alcohol level revealed 0 to 330 mg% and breath alcohol 0 to 313 mg%. Mean interval of blood alcohol was 127.9250 mg% and of breath alcohol was 124.4417 mg% The relationship has linear regression equation was Y = 0.9189, X + 8.3478, Y = level of alcohol in blood measured by breathalyzer and X = level of alcohol in blood measured by Head Spread Gas chromo tography. The value of correlation coefficient is equal to 0.987 and is very significant in statistic value at the level of 0.001.

The detection of blood group in small amount blood stain by microtechnique.

A microtechnique adapted from mixed agglutination method was modified in order to detect blood group in small amount of blood stain (approx 10 microgram). By improving the blood stain solvent and method, the ABO grouping of human blood stain in small amount can be detected correctly almost 100% at the duration of 1 month for blood stain in room temperature and 2 weeks for blood stain under influence of sunlight. The technique was described and show that it is possible to be a routine laboratory examination in forensic medicine.