Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

Background: It is a well established fact that cardiac health and exercise go hand in hand.However, rigorous exercising regimens without proper cardiovascular screening can lead to catastrophic death in unsuspecting and otherwise healthy individuals. Among the underlying undetected cardiovascular conditions that need to be accounted for, especially in young adults, are hypertrophic cardiomyopathies.

Case Details: The deceased, a 33-year-old state level bodybuilder, was participating in a body building competition when he suddenly complained of dizziness and collapsed. The deceased appeared to have no signifi cant fi ndings on external examination. Internal examination, however, revealed that the heart was enlarged and weighed 698 g. On microscopic examination, ventricle sections showed enlarged myocytes with disarray and enlarged nuclei. The cause of death was ascertained to be due to complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Implications For Clinical Practice: Among the feasible options available in low and middle income countries, electrocardiography is an inexpensive method as a screening test, leading the way for using tools such as CMR, serum biomarkers and genetic testing if required.

Conclusion: Understanding the relationship between physical exertion and its eff ect on a hypertrophic heart is essential. The case presented brings to light the need for in-depth precompetition screening of athletes. This is especially true since athletes are the one category of individuals where good health is taken for granted.

Introduction: It is diffi cult to describe or analyze face aging since it is a complex process driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Face aging diff erently infl uencesthe facial components of an individual such as the nose, mouth, and eyes.

Objective: In this paper, we have discussed reviewing facial features, that change with the progression of age and techniques available to recognize these changes.

Method: The majority of the work on face recognition has been carried out on adults and less of the work is reported on facial aging. Researchers have tried to develop algorithms for facial recognition, verifi cation, and identifi cation system which will have low false positive rates and high true positive rates due to the age infl uencing factor.

Conclusion: It will help the scientifi c community for better analysis and recognition.

Context: Age estimation is playing a very important role in the criminal justice system and also in the forensic human identifi cation process. Over the past several decades, the scientifi c community has done extensive work on age estimation from biological markers of growth, the dental structure being one among them. The routine dental age estimation methods usually apply the mineralization and/or the eruption parameters of the developing dentition. Certain factors like the nutritional status and the socio-economic status of the individual also may infl uence dental development and eruption.

Aim: The objective of the study was to assess the link between the nutritional status and the dentition status of children and adolescents in the age range of 12 to 18 years.

Settings and Design: This is a cross-sectional population based, descriptive study.

Materials and Methods: The body mass index (BMI) and the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) values were measured to assess the nutritional status of the children with a mean age of 14.35 years (± 1.36). The oral examination was done to count the number of teeth present. The tooth count was compared with the BMI and the MUAC values of the children.

Results: The mean BMI of the study population was 17.36 Kg/m2 ± 3.40 and the mean MUAC value was 21.53cm ± 2.93. There was a strong positive correlation between BMI and MUAC and a signifi cant diff erence in the deciduous tooth count among the BMI categories. (2 =12.161, df 3, p<0.05).

Conclusion: There is no signifi cant association between BMI and deciduous tooth count in the study sample.

Key Messages: The BMI and MUAC values are markers of nutritional status in growing children. Though nutritional status has a link with the tooth development, the present study could not establish a signifi cant association between BMI and deciduous tooth count in children in the age range of 12 to 18 years.

Introduction: The goal of the current investigation was to see if there was any correlation between skeletal malocclusions and lip print patterns.

Settings and Design: Hospital based, prospective, observational, cross-sectional study.

Meterials and Methods: The study was conducted on 120 subjects, divided into 3 groups Skeletal Class I, Class II, and Class III based on ANB angle, Beta angle, and Wits. For the assessment of lip print patterns, they were classifi ed according to the Tsuchihashi classification system.

Statistical analysis: The chi-square test was used to study diff erences in the groups.

Results: It was noted that the most prevalent lip pattern was Type I while; the least was the Type V pattern. A Type III lip pattern was absent. There was a signifi cant correlation between Type I lip pattern and Skeletal Class III malocclusion. Also, there were signifi cant gender diff erences in lip print patterns in skeletal class I malocclusion with no diff erences in skeletal class II and class III malocclusion.

Conclusion: Lip prints can be a useful aid in predicting the type of skeletal malocclusion as they develop early in life, therefore, can be successfully used for preventative and interceptive orthodontic procedures. Hence, lip prints can be used as early detectors of skeletal malocclusions.

Key Messages: Since the craniofacial skeleton and lips print both develop at the same embryonic stage, developmental variables that result in malocclusions may also be refl ected in the lip print patterns.

Context: In India, abrasions are usually dated by the naked-eye observation of gross changes. Various researches consider the dating of abrasion by naked-eye examination as an uncertain and variable method. This may have signifi cant medical and legal ramifi cations. To improve the

Aims: accuracy of the dating of abrasion, histopathology profi ling has been suggested. To estimate the age of abrasion by histopathology examination.

Settings and Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted from 1st January 2021 to 30th June 2022.

Methods and Materials: Total 102 abrasions from subjects aged 4 to 80 years were correlated with the time frame of the occurrence of diff erent microscopic changes that follow the abrasion. Abrasions ranging from 0.02 hours to >336 hours were studied, and based on the duration of infl iction, abrasions were divided into 10 groups. The representative area of abrasion with adjacent normal skin with an underlying soft tissue of thickness 0.5 cm to 1 cm was dissected and a control sample was taken of intact skin and preserved in 10% formalin solution for fi xation. The specimen was processed, and a histopathology slide was prepared and examined. Routine haematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining done. Van Gieson’s stain was used to confi rm the presence of collagen.

Statistical analysis used: Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0 software. P<0.0 was considered signifi cant. Descriptive data were expressed as frequency; for the age group of abrasions (quantitative data), mean and SD were calculated; Pearson’s chi-square test of independence was used to compare the microscopic changes in abrasion with the age of infl iction.

Results: A significant relationship was observed between the age of abrasion and histopathology fi ndings (X281=552.92, P<0.001).

Conclusions: The reliability and accuracy of dating of abrasion increases if a histopathology examination is performed along with gross examination. To opine the age of injury accurately, the autopsy surgeon should subject the samples to histopathology examination.

Key Messages: To opine the age of abrasion accurately, the autopsy surgeon should subject the samples to histopathology examination.
 

Introduction: Identification is the determination of the individuality of a person based on certain physical characteristics, i.e., exact fi xation of personality. Correct sex estimation reduces the possible number of individuals that need to be considered by approximately 50%. According to Krogman, sexing can be 90% accurate by skull alone, but till dateonly a handful of studies have been undertaken to study the relation of cranial suture length with parameters like sex and stature.

Material and Method: his study was conducted on 400 deceased adults brought for postmortem examination during study period. All the observations related to the current study were done by naked eye and data regarding age, sex and curvilinear length of sagittal suture were recorded.

Results: The mean curvilinear length of sagittal suture was 12.42 ± 0.74 cm in females and 12.76 ± 0.71 cm in male and the mean length of the sagittal suture was signifi cantly higher among males as compared to females.

Conclusion: Curvilinear length of sagittal suture is a reliable predictor of sex.