Hiding in Plain Sight: Clinically Unrecognized Fatal Tooth Asphyxia Revealed by the Forensic Autopsy.

Fatal asphyxia by choking whether by food or foreign material remains an uncommon occurrence affecting mainly those at the extremes of age and with variable and sometimes misleading clinical presentations. Prompt clinical recognition of impending airway obstruction afforded by complete physical examination and assessment is paramount for prevention of morbidity and mortality in these cases. In the elderly, a death initially presenting with sudden cardiorespiratory collapse may be erroneously certified as due to natural disease without performance of an autopsy.

Allergy in extremis: a case of sudden unexpected death due to an allergy-associated disease.

Allergy-associated diseases have a multitude of confirmed or suspected etiologies and associations affecting organs and organ systems. The hyper-reactivity of the immune system in which the eosinophils are prominent plays a central role in organ-specific and systemic effects in these diseases. Patients may be plagued with nonspecific, episodic, or progressive signs and symptoms.

Postmortem tissue distribution of MDPV following lethal intoxication by "bath salts".

3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a psychoactive, synthetic analog of the central nervous system stimulant cathinone. Its recent popularity as a recreational drug in the United States has led to numerous reports to poison control centers across the country. As with other synthetic cathinones, the recreational use of MDPV has resulted in death.

Multivisceral sarcoidosis: an unexpected finding in a water-related death.

Upon encountering a body submerged within or in close association with a watery environment, the temptation by the first responder may be to surmise that the death is probably an accidental drowning of some sort. The challenge, however, is to quickly move beyond such temptation, maintaining an open mind to other possibilities. Unearthing the circumstances surrounding a water-related death requires the collaborative efforts of groups of trained professionals including law enforcement officers, medicolegal death scene investigators, forensic scientists, and forensic pathologists.

Homicidal ethylene glycol intoxication: a report of a case.

We report a case of a 75-year-old hypertensive, diabetic man who presented to the emergency room with symptoms and signs of nausea, acute intoxication, significant alteration in mental status with rapid neurologic deterioration, and blunt impact injuries sustained during a recent altercation with a 36-year-old female companion-caretaker. He denied a history of ethanol abuse or other recent toxic ingestion and had not been diagnosed with or treated for depression. Hospital laboratory tests revealed a metabolic acidosis and a negative urine toxicology screen.

Distinctive patterned injuries caused by an expandable baton.

Identification and documentation of patterned blunt-force injuries at autopsy is of utmost forensic importance, particularly when the object or surface producing the injury is unknown or uncertain. Documentation of patterned injuries produced by known objects contributes to the catalogue of forensic knowledge regarding those objects and the injuries they cause. This report presents a case in which a 27-year-old male sustained multiple nonlethal patterned blunt-force injuries produced by an expandable baton and subsequent multiple gunshot wounds during apprehension by police.

An unusual fatality in a child due to oxycodone.

An unusual fatality secondary to oxycodone in a child is reported. A 2-year-old female child was conveyed to a local hospital after exhibiting signs of rubbing of the mouth and staggering. A hospital toxicological immunoassay screen for drugs of abuse and tricyclic antidepressants was performed on a urine sample and reported as negative.