Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

 Spleen is a vascular organ situated in the left upper quadrant of the abdominal cavity. It appears approximately at sixth week of embryonic life. Like any other organ in the body it can display various developmental anomalies like agenesis, polyspleenia, splencunculi etc. Accessary spleen (AS) may be formed during embryonic life as a separated splenic tissue along the path of development. This may be mistaken for neoplasm/secondaries due to neoplasm etc. Apart from this AS has many clinical significance to the surgeon.

Keywords: Accessary Spleen; Autopsy; Congenital Anomalies.

 Estimation of Time Since Death (TSD) is very important in routine forensic practice. Various techniques and parameters are utilised for determination of this TSD. One of the most recently and vastly studied method of determination of TSD is with the help of vitreous electrolyte concentration analysis. Recently workers have reported a significant between eye differences for same individual at identical TSD. This has doubted the use of vitreous electrolyte analysis in TSD determination. The review of literature highlights various causes behind this fact and need of more research in this topic as discussed in this article.

Keywords: Vitreous Electrolytes; Time Since Death; Between Eye Differences; Sampling Errors; Analytical Errors.

 Non-healing ulcers are an important cause of morbidity to the patients .Most of the patients present with chronic non healing ulcers over lower one third of the legs .However certain patients with peripheral arterial disease any have ulcer at any level below the arterial occlusion.Patients with diabetes are at greater risk for the non-healing ulcers due to peripheral neuropathy and and vascular compromise .The some times get secondarily infected which makes the condition more complicated for treatmen.

Keywords: Non Healing Ulcers; Diabetes Mellitus; Vascular; Infection.

 Background: As per the Oxford dictionary custody means “protective care or guardianship of someone or something”. In the legal parlance Custody is defined as any point in time when a person’s freedom of movement has been denied by law enforcement agencies, such as during transport prior to booking, or during arrest, prosecution, sentencing, and correctional confinement. Study design: It’s a Cross sectional retrospective analysis. Material and Method: Retrospective analysis of 90 cases of custodial deaths that have occurred in various Police custody of Andhra Pradesh. The cases collected for the study were over a period of more than two decade. Records pertaining to 90 cases could be gathered from various sources. Permissions and consents were procured before the study and clearance from the Institutional Ethical committee was obtained in advance. Observation and Discussion: Total 90 cases of custodial death were analyzed. Out of these, 89 were males and 1 was female. Age group of these cases were between 21 to 60 years, maximum cases (37 cases) being between 21 to 30 years and 34 cases in the age group of 31 to 40 years, whereas 11 cases in between 41- 50 years age group. Out of 90 deaths, 19 were natural death of the unnatural deaths, 38 were suicides, 9 accidents, 30 were due to injuries. Among suicides the commonest mode of suicide is hanging. Out of 38 suicides, 28 cases were hanging, 5 cases of poisoning, 3 cases were of drowning. Death occurring in early age is of great concern and highlights the importance of effective implementation of screening and diagnostic program. Studies have concluded that natural and suicidal cases are more common in custody than accidental, homicidal or torture. Conclusion: Measures should be taken to provide a safe environment at the time of interrogation in police custody, following of code of conduct by the police. There is also a need for proper reform to avoid deaths due to suicide, violence and self-harm among the inmates. There is a need to have constant surveillance over them and install Cameras to supervise their activities to prevent violence and suicide.

Keywords: Police Custody Deaths; Torture; Victims; Suicide.

 The causality department plays a vital role in treating in emergencies as well as in handling of legal implications of the cases. Common medico legal cases include alleged cases of assault, road traffic accidents, burns, poisoning, industrial accidents etc. In present study 925 medico-legal cases were reported to the causality department of Hamdard institute of medical science New Delhi during the period from 1st January 2014 to 31 December 2014. Study shows maximum number of cases were of physical assault (46.05%) followed by road traffic accidents (27.56%) and poisoning (8.97%) with over all male predominance (67.46%) and most vulnerable age group being 21-30yeas (39.89%) followed by 31-40 years (22.38%). These can be prevented by strict enforcement of law and order, proper education and awareness of road safety measures. Training of doctors who are involved in handling of medico legal cases is needed.

Keywords: Medico Legal Cases; Casualty; Incidence.

 Dead bodies are attracted by numerous species of arthropods, primarily flies, beetles, mites, isopods opiliones, nematodes and their larvae. These arthropods feed, live and breed in and on the dead bodies, depending on their biological preference and on the state of decomposition. At the very initial stages of the decay, just a few moments after the death, no odour is perceptible by a human being, but arthropods do smell it and locate their target in minutes following the death, in optimal environmental conditions of humidity, temperature, sun exposure, and corpse localization. Here in this study on 51 decomposed cases, we have collected eggs, larvae, pupae and reared till flies and these flies were identified and studied.

Keywords: Arthropods; Decomposition; Larvae; Pupae.

 Context: Identification is an unavoidable process in forensic setting. DNA analysis is one of several scientifically recognized methods to identify somebody. As an alternative to the largely used DNA specimen, the last object frequently used by the perpetrator or victim can be used as well. Clothes or apparels stick to the outer skin; thus the epithelial cells of the skin can be expected to attach to them. One factor that may affect the quality of DNA is the duration of exposure. From the two DNA analysis methods, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has better durability than nuclear DNA due to its relatively larger amount. Hence, mtDNA has some greater chance of success in the amplification process. Aims: From this study, we would like to understand of the effect of the duration of exposure to room temperature on the quality of DNA derived from sweat spots in Indonesia remaining that the data remains unavailable to date. Setting and Design: This is an analytical experimental research with time-series design. Material and Method: Sweat-spotted clothes that had been worn were subsequently exposed to room temperature for 0, 1, 7, 14 and 20 days. Statistical analysis used: nil. Results: Results showed that longer exposure markedly decreased the concentration of DNA from day 1 to 20 at p < 0.005. Conclusions: Longer duration of exposure to room temperature significantly decreased the quality of DNA derived from sweat spots on clothes. Visualization of PCR detection results show positive (+) detection only on day 0 of exposure on both 143-bp mtDNA HVS 1 and 126-bp mtDNA HVS 2.

Keywords: Sweat Spot; DNA Quality; Mitochondrial DNA; Identification.