A new tool for coding and interpreting injuries in fatal airplane crashes: the crash injury pattern assessment tool application to the Air France Flight AF447 disaster (Rio de Janeiro-Paris), 1st of June 2009.

For investigation of air disasters, crash reconstruction is obtained using data from flight recorders, physical evidence from the site, and injuries patterns of the victims. This article describes a new software, Crash Injury Pattern Assessment Tool (CIPAT), to code and analyze injuries. The coding system was derived from the Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS). Scores were created corresponding to the amount of energy required causing the trauma (ER), and the software was developed to compute summary variables related to the position (assigned seat) of victims. A dataset was built from the postmortem examination of 154/228 victims of the Air France disaster (June 2009), recovered from the Atlantic Ocean after a complex and difficult task at a depth of 12790 ft. The use of CIPAT allowed to precise cause and circumstances of deaths and confirmed major dynamics parameters of the crash event established by the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authority.

Inmate-to-inmate violence as a marker of suicide attempt risk during imprisonment.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the incidence of suicide attempts during imprisonment in a French prison and to determine factors associated with them. METHODS: All male inmates of a prison for prisoners awaiting trial or serving a short sentence (Bordeaux, France) were eligible for this cross-sectional study. They were face-to-face interviewed by an experienced psychologist (n = 369; mean age = 36 years). Socio-demographic data, imprisonment conditions, health status, healthcare utilization, mental health, impulsiveness, inmate-to-inmate violence (victim and perpetrator status) and suicidal behaviours were documented. RESULTS: The incidence of suicidal attempts during imprisonment was 13.4 per 100 person-years. Having made at least one suicide attempt during imprisonment was associated with: being a victim of physical or sexual violence without perpetrating it (adjusted OR = 5.4; 95%CI [2.4-12]), suffering from depressive and anxious symptoms (adjusted OR = 3.3; 95%CI [1.5-7.7]), having children (adjusted OR = 3.0; 95%CI [1.2-7.7]) and having a poor perceived health status (OR = 2.5; 95%CI [1.1-5.4]). A history of suicide attempt before imprisonment was not associated with the risk of suicide attempts while imprisoned. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that violence plays a major role in the suicidal process in prison. The inclusion of inmate-to-inmate violence in the screening checklists of inmate suicide risk should be explored.

Impact of the 1998 football World Cup on suicide rates in France: results from the national death registry.

Our objective was to determine whether the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in 1998 had a short-term impact on the number of suicides in France. Exhaustive individual daily data on suicides from 1979 to 2006 were obtained from the French epidemiological center on the medical causes of death (CepiDC-INSERM; France). These data were analyzed using the seasonal ARIMA model. The overall effect of the World Cup was tested together with potential specific impact on days following the French team games. Between 11th June and 11th July, a significant decline of 95 suicides was observed (-10.3%), this effect being the strongest among men and people aged between 30 and 44. A significant decrease was also observed for the days following French team games (-19.9%). Our results are in favor of an effect of nationwide sport events on suicidal behaviors and are consistent with other studies. Many of the theories explaining the relationship between sports and suicide are related to sense of belongingness and social integration, highlighting the importance of social link reinforcement in suicide prevention.

Myocardium distribution of sertindole and its metabolite dehydrosertindole in guinea-pigs.

Sertindole, like other atypical antipsychotics, has been shown to increase the action potential duration and QT interval in a concentration dependent manner, in in vitro electrophysiological studies. However, this does not always translate into increased duration of the QT interval, increased risk of torsade de pointes or sudden death in clinical practice. The reasons for these apparent discrepancies are unclear and many studies have underscored the importance of the interpretation of in vitro electrophysiological data in the context of other pharmacodynamic (e.g. cardiac ion channels target, receptor affinity) and pharmacokinetic parameters (total plasma drug concentration and drug distribution). To address the possible relevance of the concentrations used in experimental studies, the myocardium distribution of sertindole and its metabolite was determined after single and repeated intraperitoneal administration to guinea-pigs. The data suggest that the plasma concentration appears to predict the concentration in the myocardium and that the myocardium concentrations of sertindole are 3.1 times higher than plasma concentrations. Using these data, the relevance of in vitro electrophysiological studies to clinical plasma concentrations has been appraised.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis and clarithromycin.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis almost always occurs after taking a medication. Despite spectacular clinical signs, it is mainly diagnosed with pathologic techniques. The identification of a drug as the cause for the immune related cytotoxic reaction can be difficult if the molecule is not generally known to be a classical cause of this reaction. The present study describes a female patient who rapidly developed a severe bullous skin disease after taking clarithromycin for tonsillitis. The case illustrates the process involved in attributing causality to a molecule using an established imputability assessment framework.

Evaluation of three rapid detection methods for the forensic identification of seminal fluid in rape cases.

We sought to discover whether spermatozoa concentration and the delay between ejaculation and test influence the results of seminal fluid fast detection tests. Two hundred and twenty-seven anonymous samples divided into four groups (normospermia, oligospermia, azoospermia, and controls) after a semen analysis were subjected to three fast detection semen tests: Diff-Quick fast coloration, Phosphatesmo Km Paper for acid phosphatases (AP) detection, and PSA-Check 1 for prostate specific antigen (PSA) detection. The study was performed at three time points (0, 48, and 72 h). Unlike cytology, results obtained with AP and PSA were not influenced by spermatozoa concentration. PSA detection results remained constant up to 72 h and were more reliable after 48 h than those obtained by AP detection.

Ballistic study of the SAPL GC27 gun: is it really "nonlethal"?

To evaluate the potential dangers of the "nonlethal" 12-gauge single-shot handgun SAPL GC27 with Fun-Tir (FT) and mini-Gomm-Cogne (mGC) ammunition, a ballistic study was performed with both types of ammunition. Nine unembalmed human corpses covered with a cloth sheet were shot through the right and left pectoral regions. With the mGC ammunition, rib fractures were observed when the firing range was less than 2 meters, skin perforation when the range was less than 1.5 meters, with lung injuries at less than 0.2 meter; the heart and the aorta were lacerated at contact range (0 meter). No skin perforation was observed with the FT ammunition, but rib fractures were observed when it was fired at up to 2 meters. Our study shows that the mGC ammunition, shot by the CG27 firearm, can be lethal at contact range and that pellets penetrate the skin at ranges of less than 1 meter. These results led us to conclude that this weapon is too dangerous to be marketed as a "nonlethal" weapon. The term "reduced wounding power weapon" is preferable.