Hijacking of the aircraft OK ADN L410 TURBOLET on June 8, 1972 - Forensic Medical Notes.

On 8 June 1972, the Czechoslovak OK DNN aircraft carrier L410 Turbolet was delivered to the regular line Marianske Lazne - Prague to the Federal Republic of Germany. About 8 minutes after the launch from Marianske Lazne Airport, the likely head of the group of kidnappers threw the captain of the plane. During the fight with one of the passenger, the head of the group of kidnappers killed the captain of the aircraft by a shot from 7.65 mm pistol. Other members of the hijackers group attacked other passengers. After the aircraft captains death, the second pilot took command and landed at the sports club at Weiden. After the landing, the kidnappers were detained by the police. Ten kidnappers stayed in the Federal Republic of Germany. An airplane with other passengers and coffin of a shot captain landed in Prague Ruzyne the following day. On June 12, 1972, the re-autopsy of the captain of the aircraft was performed at the Central Military Hospital in Prague. Post-autopsy status was detected. In this re-autopsy, it was possible to reconstruct the fire channel only incompletely, because during the previous autopsy performed in Federal Republic of Germany was excised the shot wound left on the neck. The fire channel began with a hole in the skin 10 cm above the right breast nipple, continued to the left and slightly upward through the subcutaneous tissue, passed through the 2nd rib at the right at a distance of 4.5 cm from the sternum, continued the lower and inner sides of the right collarbone, flowing on the front the ring cartilage and the first ring of the trachea, and on the underside of the left lobes of the thyroid gland, passed on the front of the left common carotid and continued into the area of the left SCM. The exid shot hole was on the left half of the neck. The direction of the shotway canal from right side to left side was detectable only by the fragment of the 2nd rib, which was broken out to the left and inside. The cause of the captains death was a traumatic shock. The injury was caused by a short firearm of small stance. Additional factors of firing were not found on the skin, as well as no signs of gas pressure. At the request of the experts performing the autopsy, a copy of the autopsy protocol from Germany was sent to them by an autopsied doctor. Among other things, it was reported that a 6.5 cm under the lower end of the left ear was a transversely oval, 2.5 cm long and 1.2 cm wide, red-black dried place of the upper skin, from which center run out a little red blood. At the conclusion of the autopsy protocol, it was found that there was a shotgun injury at the left side of the neck and the right side of the chest. The entrance wound according to the sent copy of the autopsy protocol, lay on the left side of the neck, the bullet penetrated the neck muscles, broke the inner branch of the cervical artery, passed through the trachea, penetrated the collarbone, split the 2nd rib to the right about 2 cm next to the sternum and the right chest 10 cm above the breast the nipple stepped out of the body. The direction of the penetration of the projectile through the body therefore had the opposite orientation compared to the re- autopsy. On the basis of this finding, the expert opinion from the re-autopsy was supplemented in the sense that there is no evidence in the autopsy protocol from Germany for the conclusion of the shot on the left side of the neck. Both autopsy experts examined the space of the aircraft cabin. The inspection showed that from the left, that is to the neck, the captain of the aircraft could be hit only if the attacker held the pistol in his left hand in a completely unnatural position so that his forearm was pulled upward over the left shoulder of the captain just to the left of the cabin and a hand bent in the wrist at a steep angle down to the right. The position of the shooters hand would be more natural if the captain of the aircraft turned backward over his left shoulder and turned the hull to the left. But this would be completely useless because of the situation, as he would look into the left cabin wall. More natural would be turning right over his right shoulder. In that case, he could be hit on the right side of the chest. The shooting kidnapper committed suicide in a cell overnight from 12 to 13 January 1973. It is not possible, based on the information available, to decide exactly how the gunshot has been going on. Czech experts did not have clothing of the captain or conclusions about their examination, and the hole on the left side of the neck was cut out by the German expert and was not provided to the Czech party through the request. It may be considered strange that the autopsy in Germany was performed in this relatively serious case outside the renowned forensic medicine department.

[Arytmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy]. / Arytmogenní ventrikulární kardiomyopatie.

Arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy is considered to be a primary cardiomyopathy. Over the last few decades, although being a relatively rare disease with its prevalence 1:2000 - 1:5000, there were numerous studies performed with the aim to elucidate the underlaying causes, pathogenesis, diagnostical aspects and possible treatment options of the disease. Arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy is genetically conditioned disease where proteins of the cell-cell junctions are involved. Mutations of the myocardial intercalated dics proteins, mainly desmosomal proteins (e.g.plakoglobin), are held to be responsible for electromechanical instability of the myocardium which causes regressive changes in cardiomyocytes in most cases of arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy. Subsequent morphological changes include fibrofatty replacement and inflammation of the myocardium. The condition results in structural changes of the heart hence arrhytmias and other signs of heart disease. There are 3 variants of this cardiomyopathy: 'classical variant with predominant right ventricular involvement, biventricular and variant with left ventricular predominance. Clinical findings in patients with arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy suggested the most appropriate means of the diagnostics and helped to create Task Force Criteria for in vivo diagnosis of the disease. The major pitfall and significance of arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy lies in its common presentation as sudden cardiac death affecting mostly young adults.

Pathomorphology of inflammatory response following traumatic brain injury, serum values of interleukins, and gene polymorphisms.

UNLABELLED: Our present study was aimed to investigate time-profile kinetics of interleukins, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in acute inflammatory response following traumatic brain injury, and the influence of activated microglial cells in patients who developed severe space occupying lesion (SOL) of secondary traumatic brain injury. Interleukins IL-6, monocyte chemo attractant protein (MCP-1), and VEGF had a significant different time-profile kinetics (p<0.05) in patient with, and without expansive traumatic brain contusions (SOL). The serum VEGF was significantly higher in trauma patients with uncomplicated brain contusions, and lower in patients with SOL. The patients with septic complications developed the sudden increase of TNF alpha and IL-8 within the first 72 hours. Our data suggested PSGL and CD68 immunopositivity of microglial cells in both focal and diffuse TBI, predominantly in perivascular space correlated with telolysosome formation in cytoplasma. Polymorphism of PAI-1, MTHFR, eNOS, VEGF, and Apo E genes in TBI were in patients with SOL were bound to show up leucocyte plugging in capillaries. KEYWORDS: traumatic brain injury - acute inflammatory response - microglial cells - interleukins - vascular endothelial growth factor - monocyte chemoattractant protein - gene polymorphisms.

A concise history of forensic medicine in Czech Republic.

This paper presents the most important historical facts about all forensic medicine workplaces in the Czech Republic since the beginning till present day, including a perspective on how to establish a new one. Each of the University Forensic Medicine Institutes or district Departments is covered by at least one author. The oldest institute is in Prague and in Brno, the youngest is in Pardubice.

[Insect and a dead man in his flat. Case report]. / Hmyz a mrtvý muz v byte. Kazuistika.

UNLABELLED: The case report illustrates a cooperation of the specialists in forensic medicine and forensic entomology using insect in estimation of the post mortem interval. It simultaneously presents less frequent consequence of the necrophagous fauna effect on the dead body condition, generally encountered in the Czech Republic only on corpses exposed for a long time in enclosed spaces. KEYWORDS: post mortem interval - forensic - medicine - entomology - frass.

Histological estimation of age at death from the compact bone of burned and unburned human ribs.

This study describes the estimation of age at death from the compact bone of burned and unburned human ribs. Bone samples came from individuals of known age, sex, and cause of death. Each bone was divided into four sections; three sections were burned at 700, 800, and 1000°C. Undecalcified, unstained ground cross sections were photographed, and 28 variables were analyzed in the bones using SigmaScan Pro 5. Age-related as well as heat-induced microstructural changes were found. These changes were often very similar and made estimating the age at death difficult in the burned bones. Differences between the sexes were found in some variables, caused by both aging and also by the different behavior of some variables during burning. Regression equations were developed to estimate age at death for unburned bones (r² = 0.579 and 0.707), bones burned at 700°C (r² = 0.453 and 0.501), and 800°C (r² = 0.334 and 0.340).

The temperature of cremation and its effect on the microstructure of the human rib compact bone.

The presented study deals with the effect of the cremation temperature on the microstructure and morphology of the human compact bone. The biological material consisted of samples from ribs of recent Central European origin belonging to individuals of known age, sex and cause of death. Each bone sample was divided into several sections. One section remained unburned and the rest were burned at 700, 800 and 1000 degrees C. A few samples were burned also at the temperature of 600 degrees C. The undecalcified unstained ground cross-sections were made from burned and unburned bones; photographed and analysed using the SigmaScan Pro 5 programme. During burning, both the macroscopic and microscopic dimensions of the bone shrink, including the measures of the individual microstructures. The percentual representation of the area of individual microstructures on the area of the cross-section decreases. The number of individual microstructures per mm2 of the compact bone cross-section increases. Most microstructural variables demonstrated statistically significant differences at the individual temperatures of cremation. The burned bones showed a large scale of the colours, especially at 700 degrees C.