Academic Forensic Pathology最新文献

Dipstick drug screens are cheap, easy to use, and quick presumptive tests to detect common drugs of abuse. Dipsticks are designed for drug detection in urine. There is no literature regarding their potential use on fluids different from urine. The study aimed to determine the performance of dipstick screening tests on postmortem vitreous and blood specimens compared to urine dipsticks and final confirmatory toxicology analyses on blood. The study population included cases in which a complete toxicology analysis was performed. Each subject was screened for three substances: cocaine, fentanyl, and opiates. Dipstick results were checked by visual inspection. Results were compared with urine screening tests and quantitative, confirmatory toxicological analyses by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry on postmortem blood samples as the gold standards for screening and confirmatory analysis, respectively. There was a high number of false-negative results for opiates. Cocaine dipsticks in blood showed the highest reliability. Fentanyl dipsticks in vitreous showed a high number of false-negative results. Both vitreous and blood dipstick screening tests for all substances performed well on negative cases. When both blood and vitreous screening tests are negative, the chance that the confirmatory toxicology analysis will be positive is very low.

Aims: This article analyses the effects of The Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, commonly known as the Goudge Inquiry, and its effects upon forensic pathology in Canada.

Methods: The Goudge Inquiry was a Government of Ontario public inquiry that examined the delivery of pediatric forensic pathology services to the Ontario Coroner's Office and the Canadian criminal justice system. The inquiry was conducted by Mr. Justice Goudge, a court of Appeal Judge and made substantial recommendations of improving forensic pathology in a Coroner system and its role in delivering evidence to the criminal justice system. This article reviews the inquiry and discusses the effect of the inquiry on the development of forensic pathology in Canada and academic literature about the inquiry.

Results: The Inquiry has had important effects on the role of all expert witnesses in the courts and is the most substantial examination of forensic pathology by any judicial inquiry.

Conclusions: The Goudge Inquiry has been considered a significant success, being described as transformative.

Diabetes mellitus and alcoholism are common disorders that may result in sudden death. Ketoacidosis may occur in both conditions. Diagnosis is based on history, and post-mortem findings including biochemistry and toxicology. This study compares deaths from alcoholic and diabetic ketoacidosis from two centres with large autopsy workloads. In the study period 9332 deaths were autopsies with 151 deaths diagnosed as ketoacidosis (1.6%) with 82 (0.9 %) being diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and 48 (0.5%) alcoholic ketoacidosis (AKA) deaths. There were more male deaths in each group. The median age for DKA deaths was 51 years (range 19-79). The median age for AKA deaths was 55 years (range was 34-78). The BMI range in DKA deaths was 12.5 to 40.4 kg/m², with a median of 21.9. The comparative figures for AKA deaths was a range of 11.3 - 38.3 with a median of 20.2. Acetone concentrations were statistically higher in diabetic compared with alcoholic deaths, mean of 33.7 mg/100 mL in DKA cases versus mean of 16.9 mg/100 mL in AKA cases. Both DKA and AKA deaths are seen more commonly in males than female and are typically people with low BMIs in their 50s.