Vol 8, No 3 (2022)

BACKGROUND: In forensic anthropology, osteological remains are widely used to assess various characteristics of a person, which helps in establishing the identity of the deceased or serves as additional evidence in controversial cases.

AIMS: The study aimed to measure, compare and distinguish the gender-related changes in the mandible among dentate of different age groups on digital panoramic radiographic images and to evaluate their reliability in sex determination that might serve as evidence in forensics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Digital panoramic images were obtained for 420 patients, which included 210 males and 210 females. Various parameters such as gonial angle, condylar length, ramus length, cortical bone thickness and ramal notch width were measured and evaluated. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and two-way ANOVA test.

RESULTS: Comparison between gender groups showed statistically significant differences in all parameters with p <0.05 except the ramal notch width. The mean value of all parameters, was found to be comparatively higher in males. Among the groups, gonial angle and ramus length were found to be higher on right side, but in ramal notch width it was higher on left. The condylar length among males showed greater value on right side, and females showed greater value on left side. The cortical bone thickness among males depicted greater value on left side, and females depicted greater value on right side. Thus, all parameters except the ramal notch width were found to be reliable in sex determination.

CONCLUSION: It was found that males had greater value when compared to females. Hence, this study recommends the use of these parameters for the purpose of sex determination.

BACKGROUND: Currently, issues of establishing the fact of a person wounded by a firearm through a specific type of obstacle or due to a ricochet, as well as the identification of the obstacle material, have not been practically studied.

AIMS: To establish the fact and features of materials of multilayer and combined barriers (triplex, combined barrier made of keremogranite and foam concrete) transferred by a firearm when fired with 5.45×39 cartridges from a special shortened Kalashnikov assault rifle

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Shots were fired through various types of obstacles using a biological simulator of the human body from a 5-m distance. All experiments were recorded using high-speed video shooting with a Sony RX0 video camera having a frequency of 1000 frames/s. Bullets and their fragments that are extracted from the bullet trap or biological target tissues, after appropriate processing, were examined using a Leica M125 microscope, a Hitachi FlexSem 1000 II scanning electron microscope, and a Bruker Quantax 80 energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer.

RESULTS: Light microscopy of the firearms that overcame the obstacle revealed the presence of a characteristic bullet deformation when it breaks through each type of the studied obstacle. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion analysis (EDX) revealed the presence of overlays of barrier particles in each case on the entire surface of both deformed bullets and fragments of their shells and cores.

CONCLUSION: The conducted experimental study revealed SEM/EDX as a reliable method to establish the fact of a gunshot wound of a person through a barrier of multilayer and combined materials.

BACKGROUND: Cold trauma is one of the leading causes of violent death in the Russian Federation due to the peculiarities of its geographical location. The pathophysiological processes occurring in the human body during hypothermia remain insufficiently studied despite a large number of studies, and quantitative characteristics of diagnostic signs most often used in expert practice are not precise.

AIMS: To clarify and supplement the complex characteristic and pathognomonic macro- and microscopic signs of fatal acute general cold injury

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Morphological signs of death from general hypothermia were analyzed based on the materials of forensic medical examinations concerning 460 corpses of people who died from hypothermia in the air using descriptive statistics, content-, and formal-logical methods.

RESULTS: The macro- and microscopic signs of cold injury have been clarified, supplemented, and systematized. A quantitative assessment of the frequency of occurrence (detectability) of diagnostically significant signs, most often used in expert practice, is given. The main signs of death from general hypothermia include ischemia of the “shell” in combination with fullness and edema of the “core” of the body, blood thickening with coagulations, micro- and macrothrombosis with hemorrhages into internal organs (brain, brain membranes, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, etc.), spasm (rigor mortis) of various muscle groups, and trophic and necrotic changes in internal organs.

CONCLUSION: The revealed signs of death from general acute deep hypothermia in the air expand the existing ideas about the complex characters and pathognomonic signs in this type of injury and allows reliable differential diagnosis of the cause of death during the forensic examination of a corpse.

BACKGROUND: The phenomenon of intolerance to denture structural materials is a multidisciplinary medical issue that necessitates close cooperation between dentists and doctors of other specialties. Criteria for clinical and expert assessment of denture condition are proposed, which will help develop tactics and algorithms for examining patients with intolerance symptoms. Hence, the differential diagnosis of this pathology will be improved, which will increase the effectiveness of dental orthopedic treatment and significantly reduce the number of complaints.

AIM: To analyze clinical and expert assessment of denture conditions in patients with complaints of intolerance to dental orthopedic structural materials

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a survey of 486 people with complaints of intolerance at the age of 45 to 89 years with fixed dentures from 2020 to 2022 (174 males and 312 females). All patients, depending on age, were divided into three groups. The denture condition and the time of manufacture were assessed.

RESULTS: The examination revealed that the use of dentures ranged from 1 month to 37 years. The analysis of the state of metal-ceramic, ceramic, and prostheses made of zirconium dioxide revealed that orthopedic dental treatment using these structural materials is the most optimal.

CONCLUSION: The elderly had the most inconsistent dentures, which is reflected in the number of those who applied with this pathology. Compliance with denture operating conditions and the use of modern structural materials significantly reduces the number of complaints about intolerance phenomena.

Recently, a consistently high number of appeals to law enforcement agencies and courts of patients regarding unfavorable outcomes of dental (therapeutic, surgical, orthopedic, and orthodontic) treatment was reported. A significantly increased number of neuropathies due to the shortcomings of medical care was found.

This study analyzed the modern literature data on defects and shortcomings in the provision of dental care to patients. A consistently high number of commission and complex forensic medical examinations of the dental profile were noted. The absence of criteria for assessing the neurological consequences of dental treatment was revealed.

Study results determined the scientific directions for studying the neurological consequences of dental treatment.

In everyday practice, a forensic doctor, among other things, solves the problem of accurate determination of the injury mechanism to correctly emphasize an investigation in a criminal case or based on a preliminary check, when the degree of guilt of each of the defendants in the case is established. The significance of each suspect’s “contribution” to the commission of the crime is determined by who bears the responsibility for the deed. The types of injuries in the injured person resulted from the direct impact of another person, which is simply a result of a fatal combination of circumstances at a given point in time. In such a situation, a clear answer to the question about the mechanism of injury often allows the person investigating to adequately qualify the actions of the suspect following the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The situation is complicated in the examination of the victims, accused, and other persons (living persons) because unlike the examination of corpses, the forensic expert is deprived of the opportunity to examine the “native material” in detail and is limited only to the data of medical documents, and the laboratory results and instrumental research methods and examination of the subject are often presented by the investigating authorities after a long period after the incident.

The results of multislice computed tomography of the brain, as a more accurate diagnostic method than standard radiography, combined with the study of the presented case materials, made it possible to consistently determine that the complex of injuries that collectively formed a traumatic brain injury in the case of a severe traumatic brain injury, was exclusively formed as a result of a fall with a blow on a hard blunt object, thereby distinguishing between damage to the impact and counter-impact zones.

The analysis of this expert case confirms the importance of using modern methods of radiation diagnostics in forensic medicine, particularly, in determining the traumatic brain injury mechanisms.

The above case from expert practice demonstrates the importance of studying both the results of accurate methods of radiation diagnostics (multispiral computed tomography) and case materials submitted by investigative authorities to determine the mechanism of traumatic brain injury, especially in the examinations of victims, accused, and others.