External post-mortem examination in virtual reality-scalability of a monocentric application.

Conducting external post-mortem examinations is an essential skill required of physicians in various countries, regardless of their specialization. However, the quality of these examinations has been a subject of continuous debates, and notable errors were reviled. In response to these shortcomings, a virtual reality (VR) application was developed at Halle's medical department in Germany, focusing on the scene of discovery and the completion of death certificates.

External bleeding from femoro-crural vein bypass with aneurysmal dilation.

Deaths due to external bleeding outside the hospital setting are often suspected to involve violence. However, some disease-related causes, can also lead to fatal external bleeding. While bleeding from natural body orifices is a common end stage of non-curable gastrointestinal bleeding, fatal bleeding via newly formed skin defects is quite rare and highly suspicious in light of external impact.

[Student training in forensic medicine in Germany: testing and evaluation].

The implementation of the Medical Licensure Act in 2002 led to remarkable changes in teaching, testing and evaluation in undergraduate medical education. Using an online questionnaire the current situation among German institutes for forensic medicine was evaluated. The return rate of the questionnaires was 80%.

Individual and institutional influencing factors on completion rates in a medical education master's program in Germany.

The increasing significance of didactic aspects in medical education has also led to the development of special postgraduate programs. Completion rates represent an important outcome criterion for these programs of study. Up to today, detailed studies on what factors influence these completion rates have been lacking.

Healthcare and forensic medical aspects of police detainees, suspects and complainants in Europe.

Death and harm is well-recognised in detainees in police custody worldwide. Based on the results of previous global surveys and the CPT (European Committee for the Prevention of Torture) recommendations a questionnaire was developed to summarise the current medical aspects of police custody in European countries. The survey was distributed to named contacts in all European countries.

Deaths in police custody.

Deaths in police custody often attract a huge amount of public interest and are frequently associated with controversy related to causation. While systematic investigations of deaths in police custody are currently available for countries in Europe, North America and Australia, the different inclusion and exclusion criteria and the lack of a uniform definition limits their comparability. Rates of death vary by age and gender with some similarities across different countries and continents.

Postmortem Examinations for the Etiological Identification of Juvenile Coronary Arteriosclerosis.

The postmortem of suddenly deceased younger adults sometimes reveals that they experienced manifest coronary arteriosclerosis. We looked at 21 cases where stenosis of the coronary arteries was at least 50%. We supplemented our postmortem findings and the results from the postmortem identification of the lipid metabolism parameters with anamnestic details.

[Efficiency of inspections of the corpse before cremation performed in the area of the Halle University Medical Centre].

From 1993 to 2007, the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Halle conducted 882 post-mortems before cremation. These records were now used for a systematic analysis of these cases to assess the efficiency of so-called second inspections of the corpse carried out in the area covered by the Halle University Hospital. In the period under review, considerable fluctuations were found from year to year, but these are mainly attributable to changes in the Saxony-Anhalt burial law introduced in 2002.

Detection of oral bacterial DNA in synovial fluid.

Objectives: As periodontal bacteria might be involved in the aetiology of rheumatic diseases, we analysed synovial fluid obtained from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and controls for the presence of DNA of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola.

Methods: In all, 42 patients suffering from RA (mean age 53.8 ± 16.

Collision victim travels for "seven kilometres" on top of the car that hit him.

A 26-year-old man, after a drinking binge, drove into a tram building site and collided with a track-grinding machine which left a fist-size hole in his windscreen. He then hit a construction worker who was catapulted onto the car roof. The worker held on to the antenna and the windscreen hole, while the car drove on for 7 km, reaching speeds of 90 km h(-1).

["Natural" death of a person under the care of a custodian].

An ambulance service doctor was called to the death of a 76-year-old woman and attested cardiac arrest and psycho-organic brain syndrome as the cause of death on the death certificate. At the second external examination mandatory before cremation, extensive hematomas were detected on the right thorax and multiple haematomas in the face and on the forehead. The autopsy initially ordered by the public health officer revealed serial rib fractures and a fractured skull.

Medical examination of fitness for police custody in two large German towns.

Worldwide, there is a high risk of medical complications or death in police custody. This risk is often increased by unclear legislation, a lack of clearly defined responsibility and medical examination standards. Any solution to these problems requires as a very basis the systematic analysis of the medical examinations that determine whether a person is fit to be detained in custody.

An avoidable death in police custody?

An obviously inebriated 36-year-old man was found in a helpless condition on a pavement. When he was brought to a police station, a doctor certified the individual to be fit to be held in custody. He was unresponsive when the officers tried to wake him the next morning but was allowed to sleep on until he was found dead in his cell at mid day.

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism: a risk factor for fatal coronary sclerosis?

Objective: The association of apoE polymorphism and coronary heart disease has been examined in numerous clinical studies. However, there are only very few autopsy studies on this topic, there having been none in Germany for instance.

Methods: In a retrospective study, we examined 121 cases where the autopsy revealed premature coronary sclerosis.

Deaths in German police custody.

Background: According to the ministries of the interior of all German federal states, a total of 128 persons died in police custody between 1993 and 2003.

Methods: An inquiry to the forensic university institutes and regional court doctors showed that, within this period, post mortems were conducted in 75 of these cases. We were able to include 60 of these 75 cases in our evaluation and deficiency analysis, which were carried out under assessment of the post mortem records and partly by making use of the subsequent medical expert reports and the results of criminal investigation.

The German case-control scene investigation study on SIDS: epidemiological approach and main results.

The present study, which was part of the German SIDS Study (GeSID), enrolled sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases and population controls and obtained objective scene data via specifically trained observers shortly after discovery of each dead infant. Infants who had died suddenly and unexpectedly at ages between 8 and 365 days were enrolled in five regions of Germany between November 1998 and October 2001. Shortly after discovery of each dead infant, a specially trained doctor of legal medicine visited the bereaved family at home.

[A hopeless case?].

In a hollow covered with earth, a herb gatherer discovered a severely decomposed corpse mutilated by scavenging animals. Only small areas of the skin had remained intact. A conspicuous tattoo could still be distinguished on the left upper arm.