Publications by authors named "Thorsten Schwark"

We present 2 cases of fatal inhalation of easily available highly volatile substances that occurred in a recreational context. Case 1 concerns an 18-year-old man who was found dead with a 25-L plastic bag pulled over his head and a whipped cream steel siphon connected to the bag. The deceased was known to previously have inhaled nitrous oxide.

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Examinations of young children for suspicions of sexual abuse are challenging for the involved medical specialists because the consequences of the interpretation of the findings can be severe and dramatic. A broad knowledge of differential diagnoses including rare pathologies like urethral prolapse and failure of the midline fusion of the perineum, known as perineal groove, is essential in order to avoid unnecessary diagnostics and treatment, prejudgment, and to reduce patient family's anxiety. We report two independent cases of girls aged 7 months and 5 years suffering from these rare pathologies, one presenting with painless lower genital tract bleeding, the other showing a lesion of the perineum as random finding during a neuropediatrician's consultation.

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The age estimation of the hand bones by means of X-ray examination is a pillar of the forensic age estimation. Since the associated radiation exposure is controversial, the search for ionizing radiation-free alternatives such as MRI is part of forensic research. The aim of the current study was to use the Greulich-Pyle (GP) atlas on MR images of the hand and wrist to provide reference values for assessing the age of the hand bones.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses the importance of conducting clinical forensic examinations for victims of physical or sexual assault, emphasizing that proper documentation and analysis of findings are crucial for legal proceedings.
  • It highlights that timely examinations are essential for securing biological evidence, as the ability to collect such samples diminishes quickly over time.
  • The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute's JUSTU project aimed to assess the availability of low-threshold clinical forensic examinations across EU member states, sharing insights from a questionnaire on victim support services.
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Diagnosis of ischaemia-related sudden cardiac death in the absence of microscopic and macroscopic ischaemic lesions remains a challenge for medical examiners. Medical imaging techniques increasingly provide support in post-mortem examinations by detecting and documenting internal findings prior to autopsy. Previous studies have characterised MR relaxation times to investigate post-mortem signs of myocardial infarction in forensic cohorts.

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Three-dimensional (3D) crime scene documentation using 3D scanners and medical imaging modalities like computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are increasingly applied in forensic casework. Together with digital photography, these modalities enable comprehensive and non-invasive recording of forensically relevant information regarding injuries/pathologies inside the body and on its surface. Furthermore, it is possible to capture traces and items at crime scenes.

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As the implementation of minimally invasive imaging techniques in both forensic and pathological practice increases, research in this area focuses on addressing recognised diagnostic weaknesses of current approaches. Assessment of sudden cardiac death (SCD) can be considered one such area in which post-mortem imaging still shows diagnostic weaknesses. We hypothesise that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with an angiographic adjunct may improve the visualisation and interpretation of cardiac pathologies in a post-mortem setting.

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Developments in post-mortem imaging increasingly focus on addressing recognised diagnostic weaknesses, especially with regard to suspected natural deaths. Post-mortem MR angiography (PMMRA) may offer additional diagnostic information to help address such weaknesses, specifically in the context of sudden cardiac death. Complete filling of the coronary arteries and acceptable contrast with surrounding tissue are essential for a successful approach to PMMRA.

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We present a rare case of a non-fatal impalement injury of the brain. A 13-year-old boy was found in his classroom unconsciously lying on floor. His classmates reported that they had been playing, and throwing building bricks, when suddenly the boy collapsed.

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The determination of potential sibship is a common task in routine kinship analysis, but often the putative parents are not available for analysis anymore. Then, a sibling analysis has to be conducted investigating only the potential siblings, thus reducing the power of the conclusion. In an attempt to determine meaningfulness of biostatistical calculations, 346 dizygotic twin pairs, 30 confirmed half siblings, and 112 unrelated people (to generate 6216 pair comparisons) were studied, all genetically typed using at least the Powerplex® 16 STRs.

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Genetic identification of putrefied bodies is a common task in forensic medicine. With advancing putrefaction, however, DNA integrity is rapidly decreasing and genetic typing of tissue might be impaired or impossible. Since DNA stability is generally higher in hard tissues, bones or teeth are frequently used as DNA source in such cases.

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The requirements in the new German guidelines for paternity analysis have not only changed according to the so-called Gendiagnostikgesetz, the new German law regulating human genetic as well as paternity analyses, but also regarding the minimal number of short tandem repeats (STRs) which should be investigated (15 STRs) and the minimal required average exclusion chance (99.999 %). Even in paternity analyses involving only two people (e.

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OBJECTIVE: Short tandem repeat (STR) analysis using commercial multiplex PCR kits is the method of choice for kinship testing and trace analysis. However, under certain circumstances (deficiency testing, mutations, minute DNA amounts), STRs alone may not suffice. METHODS: We present a 50-plex single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay based on the SNPs chosen by the SNPforID consortium as an additional method for paternity and for trace analysis.

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The HSP70 superfamily is a reliable biomarker for hyperthermia, hypothermia and hypoxia. The Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) respectively immunohistochemically staining methods are the typically used techniques for the quantification of those proteins. As the costs for reagents and devices as well as the work schedule of these methods are immense it was the goal of our study to develop an easy and reliable method to quantify the concentration of specific proteins.

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The gene tyrosine hydroxylase 1 (TH01) has been suggested as a candidate for human longevity. A previous study has shown an association between longevity and specific alleles of the TH01 short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphism in an Italian population. This STR locus is also widely used in forensic genetics.

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The identification of putrefied bodies is a common task in forensic routine work. The deceased are usually identified by dental records, fingerprinting, or--in cases where no such data are available--DNA analysis. However, with progressive putrefaction, DNA integrity is rapidly decreasing.

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The identification of severely burnt human remains by genetic fingerprinting is a common task in forensic routine work. In cases of extreme fire impact, only hard tissues (bones, teeth) may be left for DNA analysis. DNA extracted from burnt bone fragments may be highly degraded, making an amplification of genetic markers difficult or even impossible.

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Paternity and maternity investigations in immigration procedures are frequently done in Germany. Since mostly only one parent and one or more children are investigated, the occurrence of possible mutational events has to be interpreted with great care and the analysis of as many STRs as possible is recommended. The new Powerplex® ESX17 and Powerplex® ESI17 kits from Promega comprising both eleven established STRs and additionally the loci D1S1656, D2S441, D10S1248, D12S391, and D22S1045 (in different order) are potential tools in such paternity or maternity analyses, but only few allele frequency data for the five new loci exist.

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DNA databases are the most efficient tools in criminal investigations with unknown perpetrators. Due to a significant number of random matches in cross-border DNA profile exchanges, the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) proposed the addition of further short tandem repeats (STRs) to European DNA databases. Therefore, the new Powerplex® ESX17 and Powerplex® ESI17 kits from Promega comprised the 11 established DNA database STRs and additionally the well-known loci D1S1656 and D12S391, as well as D2S441, D10S1248, and D22S1045.

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The new Powerplex® S5 Mini STR-System from Promega with the four provided STR loci D18S51, D8S1179, TH01 and FGA as well as the Amelogenin marker (PCR products ranging from 80 to 220 bp not considering the longer FGA fragments) is designed as a screening tool especially in difficult casework samples. To test its suitability we amplified highly degraded DNA from casework samples, which had shown no or only poor results in analyses with the Powerplex® ES kit, as well as artificially degraded DNA or DNA samples containing PCR inhibitors. Despite a tendency for allelic drop-ins in the amplification of highly degraded DNA the Powerplex® S5 kit was a reliable tool for the analysis of casework samples with degraded DNA which gave better results than the Powerplex® ES kit in 64% of analysed swabs.

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The common 4977-bp deletion in mitochondrial DNA (dmtDNA(4977)) occurs frequently in tissues of high oxygen demand and low mitotic activity, e.g. brain, heart and skeletal muscle, where it appears to show an age-related accumulation.

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Previous studies have shown that activin A, a neuroprotective cytokine and dimeric polypeptide composed of two betaA subunits, is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients suffering from bacterial meningitis. In this study, to elucidate further the functional significance and pathophysiological implications of these findings, we demonstrated that microglial cells are not only the source but also the target cells of activin A in the central nervous system: immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR revealed expression of activin subunit betaA mRNA as well as activin receptor type I and type II mRNA in rat microglia in vitro. Further studies showed that activin enhances microglial proliferation and decreases the gamma-interferon-induced synthesis of nitric oxide, one of several microglial mediators involved in the inflammatory response in microglia activation.

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A 32 year-old woman was hospitalised with severe septic symptoms. The examination of the patient revealed placenta residues in the woman's uterus as cause of the infection. The police was called and investigated her apartment in search of the missing baby.

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Y-STR analysis is a common tool in forensic case work. Lately it has also been popular in genealogical research to determine the male lineage. We present the investigation of members of a family with a pedigree dating back to the 14th century.

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This investigation presents the retrospective evaluation of paternity testing done as a "second opinion" in the last four years at the Institutes of Legal Medicine in Jena, Greifswald, and Kiel (Germany). All analyses were court-ordered and were preceded by paternity tests of "private" labs. The cases were selected in chronological order without any further exclusion criteria.

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