Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections among sexual assault victims referred to three French clinical forensic units.

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) infections are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide. These STIs are frequently asymptomatic, which often delays diagnosis and treatment with the risk of serious long-term complications. Current French recommendations call for targeted screening of populations considered to be at risk, including victims of sexual assault.

Fatal bowel perforation caused by ingestion of high-powered magnets in a 6-year-old boy.

Foreign body ingestion in children is a frequent cause for medical consultation. Although most foreign bodies are spontaneously eliminated from the gastrointestinal tract, life-threatening complications such as gastrointestinal obstruction or perforation can occur. We report the case of a 6-year-old boy who died 2 days after the onset of nausea and abdominal pain, with no foreign body ingestion witnessed or reported in the previous days.

Ex Vivo Comparison of the Elastic Properties of Vascular Substitutes Used for Pulmonary Artery Replacement.

Introduction: Study aims were to evaluate the elastic properties of vascular substitutes frequently used for pulmonary artery (PA) replacement, and then to compare their compliance and stiffness indexes to those of human PA.

Methods: A bench-test pulsatile flow experiment was developed to perfuse human cadaveric vascular substitutes (PA, thoracic aorta, human pericardial conduit), bovine pericardial conduit, and prosthetic vascular substitutes (polytetrafluorethylene and Dacron grafts) at a flow and low pulsed pressure mimicking pulmonary circulation. Intraluminal pressure was measured.

Influence of the toxicological status on the diagnosis of fatal drowning.

Drowning is the leading cause of death by accident of everyday life in people under 25 years of age. Xenobiotics are frequently involved in drowning cases but their influence on the diagnosis of fatal drowning has not been studied so far. This preliminary study aimed to assess the influence of an alcohol and/or a drug intoxication on the autopsy signs of drowning, and on the results of diatom analyses in drowning deaths.

Influence of the ear temperature range on the measurement bias between an infrared thermometer and a reference probe for post-mortem interval determination.

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of the post-mortem outer ear temperature (OET) on the measurement bias previously observed for short post-mortem intervals (PMI) between a commercially available infrared thermometer and a reference metal probe thermometer. To that end, 100 refrigerated bodies were added to our initial cohort to investigate lower OET. In contrast to our previous findings, a very good concordance was noted between both methods.

Myeloperoxydase and CD15 With Glycophorin C Double Staining in the Evaluation of Skin Wound Vitality in Forensic Practice.

Background: The determination of skin wound vitality based on tissue sections is a challenge for the forensic pathologist. Histology is still the gold standard, despite its low sensitivity. Immunohistochemistry could allow to obtain a higher sensitivity.

Forensic age assessments of alleged unaccompanied minors at the Medicolegal Institute of Montpellier: a 4-year retrospective study.

Background: As many other European countries, France has to deal with a growing number of migrants including some who contend age minority entitling them to benefits and privileges reserved for children within the context of legal proceedings. In case of doubtful minority, medical examinations may be carried out to assess skeletal and dental age. Our objective was to analyse the age assessments regarding individuals of doubtful minority assertion at the Medico-legal Institute of the University Hospital of Montpellier since 2018.

[Forensic autopsies and pathological examination: Current practice in Montpellier's jurisdiction. A retrospective study of 630 autopsies].

Introduction: In France, pathological examination is not systematically required in forensic autopsies. The factors affecting the decision to carry out a pathological expertise have not yet been defined. The aim of this study was to describe in which conditions a pathological expertise was required after forensic autopsy by the high court of Montpellier.

Cytokines as new biomarkers of skin wound vitality.

Background: The diagnosis of skin wound vitality is currently based on standard histology, but histological findings lack sensitivity in case of a short survival time. New reliable biomarkers of vitality are therefore strongly needed. We assessed the ability of 10 candidate cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, TNF-α) to discriminate between vital and early post-mortem wounds.

Estimation of the time since death based on body cooling: a comparative study of four temperature-based methods.

The estimation of the time since death is an important task in forensic medicine that mainly relies on body cooling in the early post-mortem period. The rectum has been traditionally used to determine the central core temperature after death, though the external auditory canal has been proposed as an alternative site by several authors. The objective of this study was to assess the ability of four body temperature-based methods (Henssge's rectal nomogram, Henssge's brain nomogram, and Baccino's both interval and global formulae based on ear temperature) to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI).

Is infrared thermometry suitable for the determination of the time since death based on ear temperature? A comparative study of two measurement methods.

Infrared thermometry has been proposed as an interesting alternative to probe thermometers for recording ear temperature in cadavers to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI), but it has still to be validated in this setting. Our objective was to compare the performance of an infrared thermometer to that of a reference probe thermometer for measuring ear temperature. Temperature measurements were performed on 100 cadavers (mean PMI: 4.

Usefulness of a blood glucose and ketone monitoring device as a screening tool for lethal diabetic ketoacidosis.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a frequent and life-threatening complication, whose diagnosis remains challenging in forensic practice. We aimed at assessing the performance of a commercially available blood glucose and ketone monitoring device (BGMD) in measuring glucose and ketone levels in post-mortem vitreous (VH) and blood samples, in order to determine if such a device can be used for screening lethal cases of DKA at autopsy. VH and blood samples were collected in cases of unexplained causes of death at autopsy.

Lethal mesenteric perforation by osteophytes after blunt abdominal trauma.

A 50 year-old homeless man was found dead the day after he had sustained blunt abdominal trauma during a physical assault. Autopsy revealed no apparent injury to the abdominal wall, but showed a massive hemoperitoneum resulting from a large (8 cm) tear of the mesenteric root. It also revealed prominent and diffuse spinal osteophytes predominating in the lumbar region, where they were fused and formed a large anterior ossified excrescence.

Biochemical markers of time since death in cerebrospinal fluid: A first step towards .

The accurate estimation of the time of death is a challenge in forensic medicine, as the methods routinely used to assess the postmortem interval (PMI) are far from being precise. Over the past decades, biochemical methods have been implemented on postmortem samples to improve the precision of PMI estimation. Studies have focussed on the biochemical profiles of closed compartment body fluids, as they are preserved longer than blood after death and are thus subject to confined postmortem chemical changes.

Fatal acute retropharyngeal hemorrhage in neurofibromatosis type 1.

We report the sudden death of a woman with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The decedent developed acute respiratory distress and died rapidly despite an emergent cricothyroidotomy. An autopsy with postmortem CT scan was performed to determine the cause of the fatal respiratory collapse and to determine if death was related to neurofibromatosis.

Age estimation at death using pubic bone analysis of a virtual reference sample.

Age at death estimation is a major part of forensic anthropology, but is often poor in the latter decades of life and should benefit from specific population standards. The aim of this study was to test a virtual reference sample with a uniform age distribution in order to improve the accuracy of age estimation for individuals over 40 years of age. We retrospectively built a random virtual reference sample of pubic symphyses from 1100 clinical cases using computed tomography at two French hospitals; this was compared with a test sample (pubic symphyses from 75 corpses undergoing post-mortem computed tomography at a French forensic department) and with the sample originally used in the Suchey-Brooks (SB) system.

Looking for new biomarkers of skin wound vitality with a cytokine-based multiplex assay: preliminary study.

Determination of skin wound vitality is an important issue in forensic practice. No reliable biomarker currently exists. Quantification of inflammatory cytokines in injured skin with MSD technology is an innovative and promising approach.