Autoerotic deaths: report of two unusual cases.

Autoerotic death is a rare but recurring phenomenon in forensic medicine. This article presents two cases of unusual autoerotic death with signs of autoerotic asphyxia. Although the first case appeared to be asphyxia, the autopsy confirmed natural cause of death during solitary sexual activity of 69-year-old man found with exposed and bandaged genitals. The other case was asphyxiation utilizing a plastic bag and multiple panties wrapped around the head of 18-year-old man disguised in women´s dress.

[Applicability of non-invasive imaging methods in forensic medicine and forensic anthropology in particular]. / Moznosti praktického vyuzitia neinvazívnych zobrazovacích metód vo forenznej medicíne so zameraním na forenznú antropológiu.

Massive progress in developing even more precise imaging modalities influenced all medical branches including the forensic medicine. In forensic anthropology, an inevitable part of forensic medicine itself, the use of all imaging modalities becomes even more important. Despite of acquiring more accurate informations about the deceased, all of them can be used in the process of identification and/or age estimation. X - ray imaging is most commonly used in detecting foreign bodies or various pathological changes of the deceased. Computed tomography, on the other hand, can be very helpful in the process of identification, whereas outcomes of this examination can be used for virtual reconstruction of living objects. Magnetic resonance imaging offers new opportunities in detecting cardiovascular pathological processes or develompental anomalies. Ultrasonography provides promising results in age estimation of living subjects without excessive doses of radiation. Processing the latest information sources available, authors introduce the application examples of X - ray imaging, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography in everyday forensic medicine routine, with particular focusing on forensic anthropology.

[Alcohol congeners and their implications for medicolegal assessment of drunkeness]. / Pribudliny v alkoholických nápojoch a ich význam pre súdnolekárske posudzovanie opitosti.

UNLABELLED: Ethanol is the main psychoactive ingredient of alcoholic beverages. Together with water it makes their major part. The other substances contained in alcoholic beverages are called congeners. Some of them come from the original substance of the beverage, some come from the fermentation or mellowing process. Except giving the drink its specific taste, scent and colour, congeners also have a non-negligible direct influence on the alcohol consumer. Nowadays, methods of identification thousands of alcohol congeners are available. Analyzing chemical compounds of alcoholic beverages have only recently gained its importance, when it helped to estimate the basic chemical composition of the particular alcoholic beverages. Mentioned method is able to identify an exact type of alcoholic beverage which a man consumed before the blood sample necessary for the detection had been taken from him. It becomes irreplaceable especially in forensic assessment of the drunkenness in case an alcoholised person, responsible for any crime, excuses himself that he was drinking only after the act/crime (e.g. traffic accident) had happened. It can also help to aprove/disprove a testimony of an accused person that he/she was unaware of being given alcohol into his/her non-alcoholic beverage. Development of the new chemical methods analyzing alcohol congeners are of a great benefit for any forensic expert-medical doctor dealing with the field of forensic alcohology. However, he/she must be aware that interaction of alcohol congeners with the human organism follows different laws in comparison to alcohol/ethanol itself. KEYWORDS: alcohol - congener - alcohol congener analysis - forensic alcohology.

Snow groomer vehicle-related fatality: an illustrative case study of the importance of medicolegal involvement.

This article describes and discusses an unusual case of an accidental death of a 29-year-old female snowboarder. A snow-grooming vehicle had run over her body after she accidentally fell down during a training ride. According to the official statement, the victim was probably under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and the snowboarder caused the accident because she did not respect the safety restrictions and collided with the snow vehicle. However, forensic pathologists offered different conclusions to the police to place the responsibility of the accident by observing the characteristics of the injuries and analyzing the autopsy results. Autopsy findings led to the suspicion that the injuries on her body were a consequence of running over of the vehicle without any modifications caused by hitting. A title and abstract review of recent articles worldwide over the past 2 decades indicates that there have been no case reports that have focused on snow groomer vehicle-related fatality with a description of the characteristics of the injuries. This case study particularly focuses on wound morphology caused by an uncommon mechanism that might help forensic practitioners.

A planned complex suicide by gunshot and vehicular crash.

Complex suicide is usually defined as the application of more than one killing mechanism to ensure a fatal outcome. Herein we report an unusual case of a planned complex suicide of a 20 year old-male combining gunshot with coincidental intentional vehicular crash. The case was initially assumed to be a simple traffic accident until a rimfire pistol was found in close proximity to the deceased as well as gunshot wound of the head. This paper demonstrates the importance of careful inspection of the death scene, as well as the complex performance of autopsy examination to explain the manner of death and distinguish accidental deaths from suicides in such cases. Nevertheless, this assessment might by very difficult or even impossible. It has to be assumed that a high number of suicides in road traffic remain undetected.

Giant cell myocarditis and endomyocardial calcification in a 2.5-month-old infant triggered by excessive maternal alcohol abuse: case study of an unusual association.

This report describes an unusual case of a 2.5-month-old infant's sudden death secondary to giant cell myocarditis and endomyocardial calcification, both unusual entities in pediatric patients. The mother had a history of excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the postnatal period. No infectious etiologies, hypersensivity, or autoimmune disorders were identified. Therefore, the authors assume that alcohol exposure might be responsible for the inflammatory giant cell process complicated with endomyocardial calcification in susceptible infants. This report is the first to describe the rare form of noninfectious myocarditis complicated with endomyocardial calcification possibly triggered by a toxic agent. The authors discuss the possible interaction between these processes that led to the infant's sudden death.

An unusual case of anesthetic abuse by a full-face gas mask.

The authors report a case of sniffing of halothane (Narcotan) by a 32-year-old man, master of pharmacy, through the military full-face gas mask. The liquid halothane had been applied on the scrubber of the gas mask and voluntarily inhaled. The sniffer was found dead in his flat, with the gas mask still fixed and sealed on his face. Because the authors have not encountered any report of such a case in the literature, they present and discuss this case in this article.

Fatal alcohol intoxication in women: a forensic autopsy study from Slovakia.

BACKGROUND: Plenty of information related to alcoholism can be found in the literature, however, the studies have mostly dealt with the predominance of male alcoholism and data related to addiction in women are desperately scarce and difficult to find. Basic demographic data focusing on the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on the circumstances of death and social behaviour in the alcohol addicted female population are needed especially in the prevention of alcohol related mortality. METHODS: A retrospective forensic autopsy study of all accidental deaths due to alcohol intoxication over a 12-year period was performed in order to evaluate the locations, circumstances, mechanisms and causes of death. RESULTS: A sample of 171 cases of intoxicated women who died due to blood alcohol concentration (BAC) equal to or higher than 2 g/kg was selected. Among them 36.26% (62/171) of women died due to acute alcohol intoxication (AAI). We noted an increase in the number of deaths in women due to AAI from 2 in 1994 up to 5 in 2005 (an elevation of 150% between the years 1994-2005). The age structure of deaths in women due to BAC and AAI followed the Gaussian distribution with a dominant group of women aged 41-50 years (45.16% and 35.09% respectively). The most frequent place of death (98%) among women intoxicated by alcohol was their own home. The study suggests a close connection between AAI and violence against women. CONCLUSIONS: The increasing number of cases of death of women suffering from AAI has drawn attention to the serious problem of alcoholism in women in the Slovak Republic during the process of integration into "western" lifestyle and culture.