Study of the normal internal organ weights in Thai population.

The normal adult internal organ weight and the relationship between it with body weight (BW) and body height (BH) have not been studied in Thailand. The 499 corpses of autopsy were performed in Maharajnakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, the center of the northern part of Thailand during 2000-2005. All of these cases were unnatural deaths including accident, homicide and suicide with no organ injuries or pathologic abnormalities and excluded decomposed bodies, diseases and previous medical treatments. These organs were collected from 269 males and 230 females and were aged between 15 and 60 years. The determination of average organ weight (AOW) was made based on the weight of brains, pituitary glands, thymuses, thyroids, hearts, lungs, livers, pancreases, adrenal glands, kidneys, spleens, ovaries, testes and uteruses. The organ weight (OW) was set in relation to sex, age, body weight (BW) and body height (BH). The AOW (g) of male and female was found to be: brain 1311/1170, pituitary gland 0.6/0.6, thymus 23/24, heart 291/246, thyroid 17/17, right lung 321/271, left lung 296/251, liver 1252/1106, pancreas 97/88, right kidney 106/97, left kidney 112/98, spleen 104/77, right adrenal 5/7.9 and left adrenal gland 6/8. It was also found that weight increased in males in relation to higher age, BW and BH adrenal gland increased in females. There was no difference in pituitary, thymus and thyroid gland weight in either sex. These results can be used as standard organ weights to determine abnormal evidences in Forensic and Pathologic corpses.

The incidence of drug abuse in unnatural deaths in northern Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: Study the incidence of drug abuse in persons with unnatural deaths such as traffic accidents, homicide with gunshot wounds, etc. MATERIAL AND METHOD: One hundred and fifty three cases with a mean age of 34 years (range 10 to 76) were studied. The decedents were mostly male (92%), with a variety of occupations including laborers (76.9%), traders (15.4%), and student (7.7%). The causes of death were mainly traffic injuries (33%), gunshot wounds (26%) and others (stab wound, poisoning, asphyxia etc 41%). The manner of death was accidents in 40% and homicides in 28%. RESULTS: Nine percent were positive for methamphetamine or amphetamine derivatives. Tests for Heroin, 6-MAM, morphine, or cocaine were also performed but not detected. The drug positive cases were mostly males (85%) with the most common age range of 21-30 years (35.4%) and 61% with only primary education. Homicide by gunshot wounds was the most common cause of death at 69.2%, followed by hanging (15.4%), electrocution (7.7%), and poisoning (7.7%). The concentration of methamphetamine in urine was between 501-61,147 ng/ml, which cannot be correlated with intoxication. There were no deaths from overdose. Three Benzodiazepine, one toluene, and one meperidine cases were also found in cases of methamphetamine abuse. Alcohol was found mostly in the persons with unnatural deaths (53.6%) from traffic accidents. CONCLUSION: This information helps us understand the marketing strategies, and the trading routes. All data will be used for planning to eradicate these drugs from Thailand in line with government strategies.

The prevalence of detectable blood alcohol concentration among unnatural deaths in northern Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is the most common substance abused. It causes many kinds of injuries and death from accidents, homicides, suicides and sudden unexplained natural death (SUND). Traffic accidents especially, have a very close correlation with alcohol concentration levels in the body. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In the present study, there were 1,138 corpses who were sent for autopsy at Chiang Mai University from January to December 2003, in which 78.4% of these cases suffered unnatural death. RESULTS: The incidence of accident was 64.7%, homicide was 22.3% and suicide was 13%. The authors used 153 corpses as a sample. In the sample, 74 (48.4%) were from traffic injuries. There was Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) detected in 82 (53.6%) of them, and 99% were male. Their age range was 26-35 years in 42.7% of cases, the employees constituted 48%, 57% were married, 52.4% had traffic injuries for a total of 54.9% who experienced accidental death. The BACs in the accident deaths were very high, with 67 (81.7%) having blood alcohol concentrations of more than 50 mg, 58 (70.7%) with more than 100 mg% and only 15 (18.3%) with less than 50 mg%. The highest BAC detected was 396 mg% in a case that did not die of alcohol toxicity. The most common range of BAC in these cases was 151-200 mg% in 20.7% of cases. CONCLUSION: Alcohol is one of the most common associations with unnatural death in Thailand From the present study the authors found alcohol associated with drugs such as diazepam and chlorpheniramine etc.

The first fatal case of yam bean and rotenone toxicity in Thailand.

The first fatal case of Yam bean and Rotenone toxicity in Thailand was studied at Forensic Medicine, Chiang Mai, Thailand. A Chinese Taiwan man, 59 years old, was found dead after Yam bean ingestion. Yam bean toxicity and death have been found very rarely in the world and has not been reported in Thailand The Yam bean plant is grown widely in Northern Thailand. But many people know that mature pods, seeds and filage of the Yam bean, except the tuberous root, are very toxic. The victim ate a lot of Yam bean seeds and died within 2 hours with respiratory failure. The authors detected Rotenone substance in Yam bean seeds, gastric content and 72 ng/ml blood by HPLC. Also generalized microscopic hemorrhage in the brain, lungs, liver and adrenal glands which were of characteristic pathology were detected. The authors concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia from Yam bean or Rotenone toxicity.

The duration time of urine morphine detection in heroin addicts by radioimmunoassay.

Heroin is one of the most seriously abused drugs and its consumption is illegal. Therefore, the detection of the drug in addicts has to be highly accurate and reliable. Morphine detection in urine is the most common method to confirm consumption. Several methods of morphine detection in urine are described such as Latex Agglutination Inhibition (LAI), Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), Radioimmunoassay (RIA), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrophotometry (GC/MS). In this study, we performed Radioimmunoassay (RIA) because it is rapid and cheap. Sixty-three male heroin addicts, average age 32 years, with an average time of heroin administration of about 3 years were studied. They used on average Q.635 grams of heroin per day. The time of detection in the urine after the last heroin administration to the first urine testing was about 8.5 hours, over 3-4 days. The amount of morphine in the urine was 17,897.9 ng/ml. Nevertheless, we found that morphine could be detected in the urine every day for seven days. The decreasing rate of daily morphine detection in the urine was 88.4, 74.2, 64.2, 57.1, 63.3 and 44.8 per cent. But there was no significant difference in the route of administration.