| 1. |
- Ceciliason, Ann-Sofie, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Histological quantification of decomposed human livers : a potential aid for estimation of the post-mortem interval?
- 2021
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer Nature. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 135:1, s. 253-267
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this study was to determine if a novel scoring-based model for histological quantification of decomposed human livers could improve the precision of post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation for bodies from an indoor setting. The hepatic decomposition score (HDS) system created consists of five liver scores (HDS markers): cell nuclei and cell structure of hepatocytes, bile ducts, portal triad, and architecture. A total of 236 forensic autopsy cases were divided into a training dataset (n = 158) and a validation dataset (n = 78). All cases were also scored using the total body score (TBS) method. We specified a stochastic relationship between the log-transformed accumulated degree-days (log10ADD) and the taphonomic findings, using a multivariate regression model to compute the likelihood function. Three models were applied, based on: (i) five HDS markers, (ii) three partial body scores (head, trunk, limbs), or (iii) a combination of the two. The predicted log10ADD was compared with the true log10ADD for each case. The fitted models performed equally well in the training dataset and the validation dataset. The model comprising both scoring methods had somewhat better precision than either method separately. Our results indicated that the HDS system was statistically robust. Combining the HDS markers with the partial body scores resulted in a better representation of the decomposition process and might improve PMI estimation of decomposed human remains.
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| 2. |
- Ceciliason, Ann-Sofie, et al.
(författare)
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Microbial neoformation of volatiles : implications for the estimation of post-mortem interval in decomposed human remains in an indoor setting
- 2021
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer Nature. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 135:1, s. 223-233
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this study was to determine if a relationship between microbial neoformation of volatiles and the post-mortem interval (PMI) exists, and if the volatiles could be used as a tool to improve the precision of PMI estimation in decomposed human remains found in an indoor setting. Chromatograms from alcohol analysis (femoral vein blood) of 412 cases were retrospectively assessed for the presence of ethanol, N-propanol, 1-butanol, and acetaldehyde. The most common finding was acetaldehyde (83% of the cases), followed by ethanol (37%), N-propanol (21%), and 1-butanol (4%). A direct link between the volatiles and the PMI or the degree of decomposition was not observed. However, the decomposition had progressed faster in cases with microbial neoformation than in cases without signs of neoformation. Microbial neoformation may therefore act as an indicator of the decomposition rate within the early decomposition to bloating stages. This may be used in PMI estimation based on the total body score (TBS) and accumulated degree days (ADD) model, to potentially improve the model's precision.
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| 3. |
- Ceciliason, Ann-Sofie, et al.
(författare)
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Mummification in a forensic context : an observational study of taphonomic changes and the post-mortem interval in an indoor setting
- 2023
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer Nature. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 137:4, s. 1077-1088
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of mummification in an indoor setting, with an emphasis on the forensic perspective. A dataset of 102 forensic autopsy cases was assessed for distribution of desiccation of skin and soft tissue (i.e., subcutaneous fat and musculature) and for moist decompositional (i.e., putrefactive) changes. Further, possible correlation with the post-mortem interval (PMI) was evaluated, as well as the effects of clothing coverage of the body. The results indicated that yellow to orange parchment-like desiccated skin was found at significantly shorter PMIs than reddish brown to black leathery desiccated skin, even when soft tissue desiccation was included in the comparative analysis. Clothing appeared to have a significant decelerating effect on the extent of desiccation on the legs, but findings in regard to whole body or torso/arms were inconclusive. A large variation in PMIs was evident as regards fully desiccated skin (PMI 18-217 days), indicating difficulties in PMI estimation due to a variable repressive effect on the decompositional process per se in an indoor setting. For the specific case in forensic practice, no definite conclusion can be drawn from the observed desiccation changes to the PMI. One way forward might be creating a systematic and standardized method for describing different desiccation types, as well as other cooccurring decompositional changes and how they relate to the PMI, as a foundation for a future quantification model.
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| 4. |
- Henningsen, Mikkel Jon, et al.
(författare)
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Subject-specific finite element head models for skull fracture evaluation—a new tool in forensic pathology
- 2024
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer Nature. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 138:4, s. 1447-1458
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) enables the creation of subject-specific 3D head models suitable for quantitative analysis such as finite element analysis (FEA). FEA of proposed traumatic events is an objective and repeatable numerical method for assessing whether an event could cause a skull fracture such as seen at autopsy. FEA of blunt force skull fracture in adults with subject-specific 3D models in forensic pathology remains uninvestigated. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of FEA for skull fracture analysis in routine forensic pathology. Five cases with blunt force skull fracture and sufficient information on the kinematics of the traumatic event to enable numerical reconstruction were chosen. Subject-specific finite element (FE) head models were constructed by mesh morphing based on PMCT 3D models and A Detailed and Personalizable Head Model with Axons for Injury Prediction (ADAPT) FE model. Morphing was successful in maintaining subject-specific 3D geometry and quality of the FE mesh in all cases. In three cases, the simulated fracture patterns were comparable in location and pattern to the fractures seen at autopsy/PMCT. In one case, the simulated fracture was in the parietal bone whereas the fracture seen at autopsy/PMCT was in the occipital bone. In another case, the simulated fracture was a spider-web fracture in the frontal bone, whereas a much smaller fracture was seen at autopsy/PMCT; however, the fracture in the early time steps of the simulation was comparable to autopsy/PMCT. FEA might be feasible in forensic pathology in cases with a single blunt force impact and well-described event circumstances.
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| 5. |
- Jones, A Wayne, 1945-
(författare)
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Scientometric evaluation of highly cited scientists in the field of forensic science and legal medicine
- 2021
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : SPRINGER. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 135:2, s. 701-707
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A publically available database of the most highly cited scientists in all disciplines was used to identify people that belonged to the subject category "forensic science and legal medicine." This bibliometric information was derived from Elseviers SCOPUS database containing eight million scientists with at least five articles as author or co-author. The top 100,000 most highly cited scientists were identified and ranked according to six citation metrics; total number of citations, H-index, H-index adjusted for co-authorship, citations to single-authored papers, citations to single or first author papers and, citations to single, first, or last-authored papers. The eight million entries in the SCOPUS database were sub-divided into 22 main subject categories and 176 sub-categories, one of which was legal and forensic medicine. The citation databases were provided as supplementary material in two articles published in PLoS Biology in 2019 and 2020. Among the top 100,000 most highly cited scientists, there were only 30 allocated to the legal and forensic medicine category, according to the 2019 PLoS Biology article. The updated database from 2020 also included the names of people within the top-cited 2% of their scientific discipline. This increased the number of forensic practitioners to 215 from a total of 10,158 individuals in this subject category. This article takes a closer look at these highly cited forensic scientists, the countries where they work, the particular research field in which they publish, and their composite citation scores with and without self-citations. The top ten most cited individuals in both databases (2019 and 2020) were the same and these should therefore be considered an elite group among all forensic practitioners.
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| 6. |
- Lin, Zijie, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation and review of ways to differentiate sources of ethanol in postmortem blood
- 2020
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : SPRINGER. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 134, s. 2081-2093
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Accurate determination of a persons blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is an important task in forensic toxicology laboratories because of the existence of statutory limits for driving a motor vehicle and workplace alcohol testing regulations. However, making a correct interpretation of the BAC determined in postmortem (PM) specimens is complicated, owing to the possibility that ethanol was produced in the body after death by the action of various micro-organisms (e.g., Candida species) and fermentation processes. This article reviews various ways to establish the source of ethanol in PM blood, including collection and analysis of alternative specimens (e.g., bile, vitreous humor (VH), and bladder urine), the identification of non-oxidative metabolites of ethanol, ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS), the urinary metabolites of serotonin (5-HTOL/5-HIAA), and identification ofn-propanol andn-butanol in blood, which are known putrefaction products. Practical utility of the various biomarkers including specificity and stability is discussed.
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| 7. |
- Mostad, Petter, 1964, et al.
(författare)
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Mathematically optimal decisions in forensic age assessment
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Legal Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 136:3, s. 765-776
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forensic age estimation generally involves considerable amounts of uncertainty. Forensic age indicators such as teeth or skeleton images predict age only approximately, and this is likely to remain true even for future forensic age indicators. Thus, forensic age assessment should aim to make the best possible decisions under uncertainty. In this paper, we apply mathematical theory to make statistically optimal decisions to age assessment. Such an application is fairly straightforward assuming there is a standardized procedure for obtaining age indicator information from individuals, assuming we have data from the application of this procedure to a group of persons with known ages, and assuming the starting point for each individual is a probability distribution describing prior knowledge about the persons age. The main problem is then to obtain such a prior. Our analysis indicates that individual priors rather than a common prior for all persons may be necessary. We suggest that caseworkers, based on individual case information, may select a prior from a menu of priors. We show how information may then be collected over time to gradually increase the robustness of the decision procedure. We also show how replacing individual prior distributions for age with individual prior odds for being above an age limit cannot be recommended as a general method. Our theoretical framework is applied to data where the maturity of the distal femur and the third molar is observed using MRI. As part of this analysis we observe a weak positive conditional correlation between maturity of the two body parts.
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| 8. |
- Müller, Petra, et al.
(författare)
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Inter-laboratory study on standardized MPS libraries : evaluation of performance, concordance, and sensitivity using mixtures and degraded DNA
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Legal Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 134:1, s. 185-198
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present results from an inter-laboratory massively parallel sequencing (MPS) study in the framework of the SeqForSTRs project to evaluate forensically relevant parameters, such as performance, concordance, and sensitivity, using a standardized sequencing library including reference material, mixtures, and ancient DNA samples. The standardized library was prepared using the ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit (primer mix A). The library was shared between eight European laboratories located in Austria, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden to perform MPS on their particular MiSeq FGx sequencers. Despite variation in performance between sequencing runs, all laboratories obtained quality metrics that fell within the manufacturer’s recommended ranges. Furthermore, differences in locus coverage did not inevitably adversely affect heterozygous balance. Inter-laboratory concordance showed 100% concordant genotypes for the included autosomal and Y-STRs, and still, X-STR concordance exceeded 83%. The exclusive reasons for X-STR discordances were drop-outs at DXS10103. Sensitivity experiments demonstrated that correct allele calling varied between sequencing instruments in particular for lower DNA amounts (≤ 125 pg). The analysis of compromised DNA samples showed the drop-out of one sample (FA10013B01A) while for the remaining three degraded DNA samples MPS was able to successfully type ≥ 87% of all aSTRs, ≥ 78% of all Y-STRs, ≥ 68% of all X-STRs, and ≥ 92% of all iSNPs demonstrating that MPS is a promising tool for human identity testing, which in return, has to undergo rigorous in-house validation before it can be implemented into forensic routine casework.
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| 9. |
- Olofsson, Emma, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Whole exome sequencing of FFPE samples-expanding the horizon of forensic molecular autopsies
- 2023
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 137:4, s. 1215-1234
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forensic molecular autopsies have emerged as a tool for medical examiners to establish the cause of death. It is particularly useful in sudden unexplained deaths where the cause of death cannot be determined with a regular medical autopsy. We provide the first study of exome data from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples (FFPE) paired with data from high-quality blood samples in forensic applications. The approach allows exploration of the potential to use FFPE samples for molecular autopsies and identify variants in extensive exome data. We leverage the high uniformity of the hybridization capture approach provided by Twist Bioscience to target the complete exome and sequence the libraries on a NextSeq 550. Our findings suggest that exome sequencing is feasible for 24 out of a total of 35 included FFPE samples. When successful, the coverage across the exome is comparatively high (> 90% covered to 20X) and uniform (fold80 below 1.5). Detailed variant comparisons for matched FFPE and blood samples show high concordance with few false variants (positive predictive value of 0.98 and a sensitivity of 0.97) with no distinct FFPE artefacts. Ultimately, we apply carefully constructed forensic gene panels in a stepwise manner to find genetic variants associated with the clinical phenotype and with relevance to the sudden unexplained death.
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| 10. |
- Squier, Waney, et al.
(författare)
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Response to Colombari et al. (2021)
- 2022
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 136
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 11. |
- Staadig, Adam, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of microhaplotypes in forensic kinship analysis from a Swedish population perspective
- 2021
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : SPRINGER. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 135:4, s. 1151-1160
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technology has enabled the discovery of several new types of forensic markers where microhaplotypes are one of these promising novel genetic markers. Microhaplotypes are, commonly, less than 300 nucleotides in length and consist of two or more closely linked single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In this study, we have examined a custom-made QIAseq Microhaplotype panel (Qiagen), including 45 different microhaplotype loci. DNA libraries were prepared according to the GeneRead DNAseq Targeted Panels V2 library preparation workflow (Qiagen) and sequenced on a MiSeq FGx instrument (Verogen). We evaluated the performance of the panel based on 75 samples of Swedish origin and haplotype frequencies were established. We performed sensitivity studies and could detect haplotypes at input amounts down to 0.8 ng. We also studied mixture samples with two contributors for which haplotypes, for the minor contributor, were detectable down to the level of 1:100. Furthermore, we executed kinship simulations to evaluate the usefulness of this panel in kinship analysis. The results showed that both paternity and full sibling cases can clearly be solved. When simulating a half sibling versus unrelated case scenario, there were, however, some overlap of the likelihood ratio distributions potentially resulting in inconclusiveness. To conclude, the results of this initial study are promising for further implementation of this microhaplotype assay into the forensic field, although we noticed some primer design issues that could be optimized, which possibly would increase the power of the assay.
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| 12. |
- Söderberg, Carl, et al.
(författare)
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Postmortem reference concentrations of 68 elements in blood and urine
- 2023
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Ingår i: International journal of legal medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. - 0937-9827 .- 1437-1596. ; 137, s. 655-669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Fatal intoxications, both accidental and intentional, are a global issue. In the Western world, intoxications with pharmaceuticals dominate, but in other parts of the world, other substances are more common. In a forensic setting, elemental intoxications are of great importance when investigating both accidental, suicidal, and homicidal deaths. The current study presents normal postmortem reference concentrations of 68 elements in femoral blood and urine. In addition, possible sources of error such as contamination from sample tubes, preservative potassium fluoride (KF) solution, and storage time are evaluated.Methods: Paired femoral blood and urine samples from 120 cases of death by suicidal hanging in Sweden were collected. Additionally, multiple batches of sample tubes and multiple batches of KF solution were also analyzed. Concentrations of elements were determined by double focusing sector field ICP-MS.Results: Key descriptive statistics for 68 elements are provided in blood and urine. Contamination from sample tubes was minor compared to the overall mean elemental concentrations in both blood and urine. KF solution contained a large assortment of elements, but the overall contribution is relatively minor for most elements given the small amounts of solution added to samples. There were significant differences for 22 elements in blood and 17 elements in urine between samples with short and long storage time.Conclusion: The present study provides an important tool when evaluating postmortem elemental concentrations. It fills a needed gap between large antemortem population studies and postmortem case reports or small case series of elemental intoxications.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
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