Tony Fracasso

..It is ideal when the expert inspecting the crime scene has also performed the autopsy, but he definitely must have detailed knowledge of the injuries of the deceased/injured and of the possible mechanisms of production...

..Distinctly positive alcohol concentrations have an influence on the fibrinolytic process and, hence, on the coagulation status...

..Because of the possible natural origin of these bleedings, the medicolegal investigation has to be as complete as possible and has to include histology as mandatory...

..No differences emerged. This study shows that AFA is not a rare event. Even moderate to severe AFA does not necessary cause death. A correlation between AFA and SIDS could not be shown...

..This may indicate the primary involvement of the right ventricle, thus, demonstrating a right ventricular failure...

..1996;155:440-444. This comparison showed minor differences which are discussed in the article. We suggest that organ weights obtained in SIDS cases can be used as norms in the first year of life...

..Keeping in mind the increasing need for molecular diagnosis, this fixation technique can be useful to ensure stable quality of nucleic acids in archived autopsy specimens...

..The use of an unsuited sharp force weapon carrying a high potential for self-injury can be explained by an excited state of mind...

..This case demonstrates that a self-inflicted injury simulating a criminal offence can be present even if very atypical features such as the use of a firearm and mutilating or defence-like injuries clearly speak against it...

..In cases of suspected arson, a typical burn injury pattern or a single finding not compatible with the rest of the pattern can disprove a suspect or raise the level of suspicion...

..The presented case shows that such a finding can also occur in cases of incomplete hanging. This paper renews the knowledge of this important sign classically described in the German medicolegal literature...

..With the power of discrimination in females [PD(F)] ranging from 0.81 (DXS8378 in Kurds) to 0.99 (DXS8377 in Germans), the investigated X-STRs systems turned out to be highly informative in the two populations...

..Further histological and immunohistochemical investigations allowed the diagnosis of EP...

..The degree of damage at the RV in cases of ethanol intoxications is lower than the one observed in cases of fatal PE...

..Thus, when working with post-mortem samples, we recommend generating degradation profiles for all transcripts of interest in order to reveal detection limits of RT-qPCR assays...

..This may indicate the primary involvement of the right ventricle thus demonstrating a right ventricular failure...

..Fresh cardiac damage was detected with the antibody fibronectin in cases of CO poisoning and was prevalently localised at the right ventricle...

..The set of stable control genes identified in this study may be used in further studies if the composition of the samples is similar to the one used here...

..It has been hypothesised that inflammatory reactions could play an important role in the pathway(s) leading to sudden and unexpected death in infancy. On a molecular level, these reactions are regulated by various cytokines...

..On the basis of the clinical history, the autopsy findings, the histological features and the toxicological results, asphyxia due to smothering was diagnosed as the cause of death...

..We concluded that GAPDH is not a suitable reference gene for the quantitative analysis of gene expression in hypoxia and that validation of reference genes is a crucial step for generating biologically meaningful data...

..The cause of death was a delayed asphyxia due to inhalation injury...

..We were able to demonstrate that a retrograde air embolism can be caused by a disconnected catheter and is even more likely if the neck is in a vertical position...

..The forensic investigation should aim at a complete reconstruction based on autopsy, histology, toxicology and inspection of the scene and the medical records...

..The autopsy showed a mycotic aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and multiple ruptured mycotic aneurysms of the circle of Willis with fatal subarachnoid bleeding...