Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

Background: Killing of human being is one of the most serious of major crimes. Since very long time laws were framed by different judicial authority in a bid to prevent its further occurrence. In spite of all there has been a phenomenal rise in the incidence of homicide all over the world and also in India, perhaps due to a highly intensified struggle for survival in the face of industrialization and urbanization. This study was undertaken with and objective to study the pattern of Homicidal Deaths in Autopsies Conducted at Rural Tertiary care centre. Material and Methods: A Record based retrospective study was conducted at the Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar from January 2015 to December 2017 for a period of three years. A total of 71 cases were included in the study period. Data was entered in to SPSS 17 statistical package and analyzed. Results: In the study 63.4% were males and 36.6% were females. Majority of subjects were in the age group 21 to 30 years (28.2%). Hard blunt weapon was commonly used in 78.9%. Majority were from rural area 60.6%. Most common finding was ligature mark in 22.5%. Most common cause of death was head injury in 23.9%. Conclusion: Most of the victims were in the middle age indicated social problems in the society as one of the reason. Strict enforcement of law on possession of dangerous weapons like sharp heavy cutting weapons/firearms should be made and punishment for such people should occur in the court of law. 

Keywords: Homicide; Autopsy; Blunt Force; Ligature Mark; Rural Tertiary Centre

  Background: Adverse neurodynamic tension is a commonly seen clinical condition. It is found in across all age groups. The lumbar radiculopathy can be quite disabling as well. Therefore we sought to find out the effect of neural mobilisation on muscle activity and the disability caused by this problem. Methods: 24 male athletes were recruited from university clinic after clinical diagnosis. They were allocated to two different arms ie experimental arm (Group A n=12, age-22.2±3.51) and conventional PT arm (Group B n=12, age 24.8±4.06). Measurements for s EMG of ipsilateral and contralateral multifidus and disability (Oswestry disability index) were taken at baseline and after 14 treatment sessions. Results: Mixed model ANOVA showed significant main effects for time F (1,21) = 32.11, p <0.001 and time-group interaction F (1,21) = 6.871, p = 0.016 while for group F (1,21) = 0.931, p = 0.346. there was more interaction effect in neural mobilisation group than conventional treatment group which implies that increase in ipsilateral and contralateral EMG is more in neural mobilization group. The disability index (ODI) improvement in both groups remained the same. Conclusion: lumbar radiculopathy patients had better clinical outcomes in terms of ipsilateral and contralateral EMG .The improvement is related to correction of the neural mobility impairment. Further studies are needed including randomized controlled trials to confirm these findings, neural mobilization effects as a standalone treatment and establish possible mechanism for neurodynamic treatment in lumbar radiculopathy. Keywords: Lumbar Radiculopathy; Disc Herniation; Neural Mobilisation; EMG; ODI.

  Background: Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) is increasing globally and India is no exception to it. RTA affects young males commonly. Head injury was the most common site to be injured in RTAs. Road traffic accident is a preventable cause of death. Objective was to determine the pattern and distribution of head injuries in victims of fatal road traffic accidents in a rural tertiary care centre. Material and Methods: Retrospective record based study in rural tertiary care centre among 345 head injury subjects for the duration of 5 years was carried out. Data was analysed using SPSS 17 version software. Chi-square test was the test of significance for qualitative data. p value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: 260 subjects (75.4%) were males and 85 subjects (24.6%) were females. Majority of subjects were in the age group 31 to 40 years (28.11%), followed by 21 to 30 years (19.13%). 42.61% had Frontal injury, 24.64% had parietal injury, 18.84% had temporal injury and 13.91% had occipital injury. Contusion was seen in 38.55%, Abrasion was seen in 31.01% and Lacerations of the scalp were seen in 30.43% cases. Conclusion: Road traffic accidents in India are on rise and deaths due to head injuries are also increasing proportionately. Males and Middle age persons are dying in RTA due to head injury. This can bear a irreparable damage to the family and its members. Most of the head injuries in the study were found to be fatal.

Keywords: Head Injuries; Road Traffic Accidents; Intracranial Hemorrhage; Contusion of Brain.

Introduction: Deaths resulting from snake envenomation is a public health problem particularly in rural India. Varieties of venomous snakes inhabit in India which take thousands of human lives every year. Establishing the accurate database of snakebite in humans from rural areas of India lackcertainty due to difficulty in the accessibility to health care, lack of proper reporting system, management of snakebite cases by untrained quacks and deaths prior to reaching hospital. Snakebite deaths are routinely subjected to autopsy for compensatory claims from the government as wild animal attacks. The WHO reported that in some countries the degree of under-reporting is greater than 70% especially in rural areas with poor infrastructure. In this context the present study was undertaken in our setup to see the extension of problem incorporated in our area. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study conducted from January 2014 to December 2017 at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, B G Nagara, Mandya district, Karnataka. The incidence and determinants of snakebite related mortality with reference to sex, age, occupation, season, time, place, site of bite, envenomation type and hospital treatment, history prior to the death and cause of death were recorded and the data was analyzed by using Excel 2010 and SPSS (Version 23) software and the results were expressed in percentages. Results: Amongst 23 fatal snakebite cases, 52.2% were males, the vulnerable age group were those in 31-60 years age group, farmers (43.5%) weremostly commonly affected, maximum number of deaths reported during rainy season (39.1%)and occurred during morning hours (30.5%) and most cases (82.6%) suffered outdoor bites. The lower limb (78.3%) was themost common site of biteand most common type of envenomation was vasculotoxic (56.6%). Haemorrhagic shock (47.8%)was the most common cause of death and only 56.5% received treatment in hospital. Conclusion: Snakebite is invariably an accident. As it is an accident, it can be avoided in many cases, but need some judicious, timely precautions to avoid the risk of snakebite and mortality associated with it. People should be made aware of such preventive measures by educating them.

Keywords: Snakebite; Rural Area; Death.  

Objective: CD4 count is the mainstay criteria for initiation of HAART (Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy) and assessment of disease progression in HIV patients. CD4 percentage adds additional prognostic information. Our study was aimed to find out if Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC) could serve as a substitute marker for CD4 count and percentage. Methods: A total of 455 EDTA blood samples from HIV-infected patients were analyzed for their ALC, CD4 counts and CD4 percentages, over a period of 6 months, from January 2015 to June 2015 in Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. Correlation analysis of ALC with CD4 count and percentage, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis at CD4 ï‚£ 200/µL andCD4 ï‚£ 350/µL were conducted as proposed by WHO guidelines. Results: The male to female ratio was 2:1 and age ranged from 11 to 78 years. The median ALC was 1600/µL, median CD4 count was 258.58/µL and the median CD4 percentage was 16.4%. A strong positive correlation (Pearson coefficient, r= 0.741) was obtained between CD4 count and ALC. However, a weak positive correlation (r= 0.276) was seen between ALC and CD4 percentage. Areas under the ROC curve for ALC with CD4 count ï‚£ 200/µL andCD4 count ï‚£ 350/µL were 0.901 and 0.911, respectively, both of which showed an excellent correlation. But area under the ROC curve for ALC and CD4 ï‚£ 20% was 0.659, which is poor in accuracy. Also, from the ROC analysis, the ALC cut offs at CD4 count ï‚£ 200/ µL (Sensitivity-83.87%, specificity-81.41%) and CD4 count ï‚£ 350/µL (Sensitivity-80.22%, specificity-86.44%) were ï‚£ 1450/µL and ï‚£ 1650/µL respectively. Conclusion: ALC has a strong correlation with CD4 count and the ALC cut offs corresponding to CD4 counts ï‚£ 200/µL and CD4 count ï‚£ 350/µL were ï‚£ 1450/µL and ï‚£ 1650/µL, respectively. But ALC did not have a good correlation with CD4 percentage. Hence, ALC is a credible alternate marker for CD4 count, but not for CD4 percentage.

Keywords: Absolute Lymphocyte Count; CD4 Count.  

  Introduction: Medico-legal autopsy of decomposed bodies are the most hectic task for an autopsy surgeon since he/she is liable to provide data for fixation of P.M.I, Type of injury, C.O.D, etc. These datas are crucial for the purpose of administration of justice. Once upon a time autopsy of decomposed bodies were known as most unrewarding one, but due to improvement in scientific techniques, such situation had been partially over come. An attempt has been made in survey form of cases autopsized in K.G.H. mortuary at Raigarh to examine the feasibility to overcome the effect of above obstacles in recent situation. Aims & Objectives: In order to assess whether it is easy to find out injuries, cause of death, pattern of changes after death etc. in decomposed bodies and to assess the extent of certainty, three years and seven months study had been conducted. Further it is also aimed at to study the age, sex and season wise incidents of cases, cause of death etc. Materials & Methods: 78 decomposed bodies were autopsized out of total 1763 autopsy cases during the period from Jan 2015 to July 2018 in KGH mortuary at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. Observations and results: Main points of discussion confined to (i) Season, (ii) Identity, (iii) Age group, (iv) Sex, (v) C.O.D. Maximum cases (48.72%) were found in summer. In total autopsized cases male predominance (80.76%) was found with M:F= 4.2:1. Maximum number of deceased persons were found in adult age group (21-60) [71.79%] and maximum cases were found in advanced stage of decomposition (39.74%). The C.O.D was determined in 70.51% of cases.

Keywords: Decomposition; Autopsy; Mortuary; Identity; C.O.D.

  Shoeprints are one of the important trace evidences that are often overlooked at the crime scene. They may provide investigative leads in identification of the accused. This study aims to determine the relationship between shoeprint length and stature amongst Central Indian population. A total of 500 subjects comprising 250 males and 250 females, aged between 18 to 50 years, natives of Madhya Pradesh, a Central Indian state were selected for this study. The height and length of their shoeprints were recorded and a regression equation was devised along with multiplication factors. We found that as the length of the shoeprint increased there was an increase in the height of the individual representing a positive correlation between the two variables (r = +0.757 for males and r = + 0.887 for females).

Keywords: Stature; Shoeprint Length; Central India.