El sistema médico-legal y forense portugués / The Portuguese medico-legal and forensic system

Los primeros textos legales que contienen algunas normas relacionadas con las pericias médico-legales en Portugal se remontan al siglo XVI, pero no sería hasta el siglo XIX cuando aparecen los primeros servicios públicos y cuando surge la enseñanza de la medicina legal en la universidad como disciplina autónoma. Se crearon los primeros servicios médico-legales oficiales (morgues) que existieron hasta 1918 cuando fueron suprimidas pasando a denominarse Institutos de Medicina Legal de Coimbra, Oporto y Lisboa. Posteriormente se unificaron en un único Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal que tiene su sede en Coimbra e integra las tres delegaciones de él dependientes, localizadas en Oporto, Coimbra y Lisboa. En las Delegaciones existen 4 servicios técnicos periciales: Patología Forense, Clínica Forense, Toxicología Forense y Genética y Biología Forense. Así mismo existe una red de 31 Gabinetes Médico-Legales dispersos por el país con dependencia orgánica de los anteriores. En el aspecto formativo e investigador cabe mencionar que las Delegaciones funcionan íntimamente articuladas con las Facultades de Medicina del país. La disciplina de Medicina Legal es obligatoria en todas las licenciaturas de medicina y también en las Facultades de Derecho de todas las universidades públicas. En este ámbito de la enseñanza debe destacarse finalmente la existencia, desde 1918, de un postgrado específico en el ámbito de la medicina legal. Portugal dispone también del llamado Laboratorio de Policía Científica (LPC), en el ámbito de la policía judicial, perteneciendo a ésta y teniendo competencias solo en el ámbito de la investigación criminal (AU)

In Portugal, the first regulatory texts referring to medico- legal practice date back to the sixteenth century, but it was not until much later, in the nineteenth century, with the development of legal medicine as an independent university discipline, that the first medico-legal public services (morgues) appeared. In 1918, these morgues were renamed Institutes of Legal Medicine of Coimbra, Oporto and Lisbon. After successive reforms, the old Institutes of Legal Medicine disappeared and were replaced by a single unified National Institute of Legal Medicine. This organisation is located in Coimbra, and comprises the three dependent delegations of Oporto, Coimbra and Lisbon. Each delegation has four expert services: Forensic Pathology, Clinical Forensic Medicine, Forensic Toxicology and Forensic Biology and Genetics. There is also a network of 31 Medico-Legal Bureau distributed throughout the country. With regard to training and research it should be mentioned that the Delegations work in close contact with the universities. Legal Medicine is a compulsory component of all degree courses in Medicine and Law in public universities, and a post-graduate degree in Legal Medicine has been in existence since 1918.Portugal also has a Scientific Police Laboratory at its service, which is only authorised for cases of criminal investigation (AU)

Expression of fibronectin and tenascin as a demonstration of vital reaction in rat skin and muscle.

The efficiency of immunohistochemical techniques for the diagnosis of vitality of wounds decreases for lesions occurring fairly close to death. We analyzed the expression of fibronectin (FN) and tenascin (TN) in wounds inflicted in abdominal skin of 12 adult rats. An incised injury was made at 5, 10 or 15 min before death and another at 5 min after sacrifice, and collected after 45 min. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections from a total of 36 samples (mean 1.5 per wound) were immunostained following the streptABC technique. Microscopic examination revealed a reticular pattern staining in 18 out of 20 vital samples for FN, 16 out of 20 for TN, 2 out of 16 postmortem samples for FN and 3 out of 16 for TN. Intracellular staining of muscle fibres was observed in 7 out of 20 vital and 5 out of 16 postmortem samples. FN and TN were detected in most of the vital injuries but they are not completely specific. Postmortem staining occurred in a few cases probably related to a passive extravasation of these molecules from damaged blood vessels. Reactivity of muscle fibres occurs both in vital and postmortem lesions, and is not useful in the diagnosis of vitality.

The use of hybrid isoelectric focusing for the detection of polymorphic proteins in blood stains.

alpha1-Antitrypsin (Pi), transferrin (Tf) and orosomucoid (ORM) were determined in bloodstain extracts by isoelectric focusing (IEF) with carrier ampholytes (CA) and also with a mixture of immobilines (HIEF). HIEF yields superior results from proteins typing in bloodstain extracts, since phenotypes are better distinguished and the bands are straighter and sharper. Also the sensitivity of HIEF is similar to IEF with CA.