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Dr. Wim Van De Voorde voerde in zijn 30-jarige loopbaan als wetsdokter duizenden lijkschouwingen uit, hij onderzocht duizenden plaatsen waar een bloederige misdaad is gebeurd, hij kwam in contact met duizenden daders en slachtoffers, in en buiten de rechtbank. Door dat alles kreeg de dokter een goed beeld van ‘het kwaad’: het intentionele kwaad van de psychopaat, de terrorist, de verkrachter en de roofmoordenaar, maar ook het soms door razende emotie ingegeven kwaad van de jaloerse echtgenoot of het ongewilde kwaad bij een ongeval. De Senior en primus van de Vlaamse wetsdokters geeft de lezer zo een uniek inzicht in hoe de menselijke geest werkt in haar donkerste gedaante.
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In de publieke opinie wordt insuline al langer beschreven als het ideale moordwapen. Het aantonen in het lichaam van insuline of een derivaat is mogelijk en kan een belangrijke diagnostische aanwijzing zijn, doch geeft geen absolute zekerheid. Deze literatuurstudie geeft een overzicht van de bestaande onderzoeksmogelijkheden om een overdosis aan antidiabetische middelen, en meer specifiek insuline, en de daaruit volgende mogelijke schade aan te tonen. PubMed, EMBASE en Cochrane Library werden doorzocht doormiddel van vooropgestelde zoektermen. 39 artikels werden geïncludeerd en geanalyseerd door een auteur. Data werden geselecteerd betreffende diagnostisch hulpmiddel, sensitiviteit en specificiteit, toepasbaarheid, substraat, normaalwaarden en pathologische waarden van insuline en C-peptide en pathologische doses van insuline. De meest beschreven diagnostische hulpmiddelen waren massa-spectrometrie al dan niet in combinatie met chromatografie, immunoassays, immunohistochemie en microscopie. De toepasbaarheid van het hulpmiddel was afhankelijk van de bewaarwijze van het staal, het type staal en de beschikbaarheid van het hulpmiddel. De mogelijke substraten waren bloed, orgaan- en injectieplaatsweefsel, urine, glas- en pericardvocht, cerebrospinale vloeistof en gal. De normaalwaarden van insuline betroffen 5-200µU/mL, de pathologische waarden, 1 µU/mL-5551 mIU/L . De pathologische dosis was 70-3200 eenheden insuline. Expliciete cijfers voor sensitiviteit en specificiteit werden niet beschreven. In bewoordingen heeft massa-spectrometrie de beste sensitiviteit en specificiteit. Insuline-intoxicatie is niet ondetecteerbaar zoals in de media beweerd wordt, doch het bewijzen ervan vraagt veel expertise. Massa-spectrometrie in combinatie met gas- of liquid-chromatografie geeft de meest correcte insuline- en C-peptideconcentratie en heeft de mogelijkheid om insuline-analogen en metabolieten te detecteren en van elkaar te onderscheiden.
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Introduction: It is estimated that in 2017 271 million people have used illicit drugs. While the majority of these drugs is transported through naval shipments, land/train routes and air traffic, a significant amount is transported through body packing, body stuffing and body pushing. The involved drug smuggler will be exposed to great risks with the possibility of a mortal outcome. Methods: A comprehensive research of the literature has been performed on the 5th of January 2020 in order to identify the relevant articles. The following databases were used: Pubmed and Embase. The articles were subjected to critical evaluation on three different levels: title, abstract and full text. Results: The complications associated with these practices are various and can be split into two general groups: mechanical complications due to the mass-effect of packages and chemical complications when a package ruptures. Detecting internally concealed drug packets can be done using different radiological methods. While abdominal radiograph is the most widely used diagnostic method, low dose CT has a clear advantage in sensitivity and specificity. Ultrasound and MRI show to be promising alternatives for imaging with ionizing radiation. Discussion: Internal concealment of illicit drugs is not an everyday event for most physicians. However, considering the increasing prevalence, it remains important for all physicians to consider body packing, body stuffing or body pushing when confronted with a patient showing signs of acute overdose or other symptoms suggesting internal concealment.
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Introduction: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) remains an important cause of infant death. Many studies have tried to identify genetic variants that could predispose an infant to SIDS. However, the potential role of most genes remains unclear, raising doubts about the usefullness of routine postmortem genetic testing in SIDS. Objectives: In this systematic review, our aim is to answer the question whether routine postmortem genetic testing in SIDS is useful and if so, which genes should be screened. We will hereby focus on the cardiac and neurological genes. Methods: We performed a literature search in MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane using both free text and MeSH terms to identify all genetic variants previously associated with SIDS. After combining the results of the 51 included studies, we compared them to the gene panel currently used at UZ Leuven for cases of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS). Results: After interpretation of our results, we concluded that cardiac channelopathy genes are most convincingly associated with SIDS, the most important being SCN5A, KCNQ1, KCNH2 and RyR2. Cardiomyopathy genes seem to be involved in the etiopathogenesis of SIDS as well, but the only gene with substantial evidence is MYBPC3. Of the genes involved in the central nervous system only PHOX2B might have a potential role in SIDS. Discussion: We conclude that a routine molecular autopsy in SIDS would be useful. However, caution is needed when interpreting the results of genetic testing. In the future, more large case-control studies using next-generation or whole-exome sequencing should be conducted. A more uniform classification system for variants should be introduced as well, in order to ease the interpretation of the results of future studies.
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Diagnostic uncertainty is a concept well established in a clinical setting. Its introduction to forensic medicine remains to be undertaken. When people die suddenly and unexpectedly, it is important for many reasons to investigate the cause of death. In the vast majority of these cases, there is a persisting variability as to what the cause of death may be. The internal autopsy is still considered the golden standard but in a majority of the cases, meaningful disease states or abnormalities are discovered by a combination of macroscopic and histopathological examination and if necessary supplemented by additional examinations. The extent to which the post-mortem findings can also explain the sudden death is often based on a subjective assessment by the forensic pathologist. The general aim of this study is to investigate and define the concept of post-mortem diagnostic uncertainty as additional insights are required in order to better assess the correctness and scope of post-mortem diagnostics. In addition, this study aims to demonstrate and measure the presence of post-mortem diagnostic uncertainty in sudden cardiac deaths younger than 45 years. Literature was used to define post-mortem diagnostic uncertainty as “the subjective perception of an inability of the forensic pathologist to provide an accurate explanation of the cause of death of the deceased”. To study its presence in sudden cardiac death cases <45 years, 1535 deaths of a period of 25 months (January 1st, 2018 - January 31st, 2020) were consulted of which 466 deaths were classified as possible sudden deaths. A total of 142 possible sudden deaths were autopsied, of which 22 were included as sudden cardiac deaths <45 years. A cause of death certainty category system was developed reflecting different certainty levels. After each investigation measure undertaken in the post-mortem diagnostic process, a cause of death certainty category was assigned to evaluate the evolution of certainty. The forensic autopsy has a valuable role in determining the cause of death and increasing certainty about it. An increase of multiple cause of death certainty categories was observed by simply performing a forensic autopsy accompanied by microscopy and histology, and combined with a detailed heart dissection after fixation. Starting from a category 5B or 4C the cause of death certainty category increased to a category 2 or 3 in 72.7% of the cases. Additional investigation measures like toxicology, microbiology, and biochemistry however did not seem to affect the cause of death certainty category. Additionally, the study has revealed some improvement points which may aid to standardize the post-mortem diagnostic process of sudden cardiac deaths younger than 45 years. The developed cause of death certainty category system can be used by forensic pathologists in the future to address post-mortem diagnostic uncertainty, contributing to a better understanding and improved interpretation of autopsy results by others.
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Background: Bone Marrow is well known to change with age, resulting in the conversion of red marrow to yellow123. Starting from the distal parts of the bones the conversion taking place towards the center. Active, red bone marrow is being replaced with nonhematopoietic cells, adipocytes. This is a constant process throughout life. Material and methods: We performed full-body postmortem CT scans analysis to quantify these changes. 116 scans were obtained in total, 61 Male and 55 Female. Manual delineations of the femur head, lumbar vertebrae, and the iliac crest were done in line with semi-automated whole-body skeleton segmentation to detect and calculate the changes. The skeleton segmentation was done by three segments: head, thorax and arms, and the lower limbs. Results: Strong correlation (p<0.05) was found between the density, volume of bone marrow, and age in all examined bone sites, excluding the volume of the iliac crest, probably due to the small size of the region. Postmortem interval did not show any significant effect on the density or volume of the bone. Meaningful difference was also discovered between sexes (p<0.05). Generally, men had more compact bone marrow until the age of 80, when the values for both sexes becomes equal. With the semi-automated method, the discrepancy between the age and sexes was visualized. Women from 20 to 40 years old tend to have the highest density of the bones. Moreover, the analysis showed skull to be the densest region of the body within all ages. Conclusion: Our results nicely correlated with the previous findings, proving the usage of CT modality for such purposes, providing potential workflow for age estimation. Further goal based on the present study would be to create a fully automated method of segmenting exclusively the bone marrow, which will significantly contribute to the forensic field.
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