International Journal of Legal Medicine最新文献

{"title":"Experimental determination of the stabbing intensity in an intracranial stabbing death.","authors":"Johann Zwirner, Matthias Vollmer, Mario Scholze, Sven Anders-Lohner, Michael Morlock, Benjamin Ondruschka","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03622-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03622-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An evaluation of the stabbing intensity including the degree of force necessary to cause a particular injury is a common task for forensic pathologists in court. Biomechanical analyses are essential for collecting objective data, serving as a baseline comparison among the highly individual circumstances of each case. However, previous investigations have utilized instruments only resembling the murder weapons as well as tissues from individuals other than the victim, including animal tissues or substitutes, which limits their applicability to forensic casework. In this study, a homicidal head stab case is presented, in which the blade penetrated over its full width, crossing the midline and injuring the brainstem and the contralateral hemisphere. A skull sample from the victim's contralateral side corresponding to the injured region was retrieved during the autopsy. For the stabbing experiments, a pendulum setup incorporating the original blade was employed. Three consecutive stabs were executed on the bone sample of the victim obtained at autopsy. Additionally, two other skull samples from different cadavers were each subjected to a single stab. The stabbings were performed at varying bone thicknesses (3-8 mm) and momenta (3.1-13.4 Ns) to account for mild, moderate, and strong impacts. High impact velocities resulted in either a blade entry across its full width, resembling the homicide case, or a multi-fragmental destruction of the bone. Mild and moderate impacts were insufficient to achieve full-thickness penetration of the skull. When stabbings were performed on a considerably thicker skull sample than that involved in the homicide case, only the blade tip penetrated the bone without achieving full-thickness perforation. By utilizing tissue from the victim and the real weapon for biomechanical analysis of the stabbing intensity including the minimum degree of force and momenta in homicidal stab cases, this experimental setup closely mimics the conditions of the actual case. Forensic investigators should proactively recommend such biomechanical analyses and secure appropriate tissue samples during autopsy to obtain objective experimental data relevant to legal questions.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145336863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fatal intoxication involving amphetamine, clonazafone, a benzodiazepine prodrug, and fluoro-etonitazene, a new synthetic opioid.","authors":"Jonas Malzacher, Benedikt Pulver, Nicolas Heller, Lana Brockbals, Stephan A Bolliger, Thomas Kraemer, Andrea E Steuer, Sandra N Poetzsch","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03627-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03627-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Intoxication cases involving new psychoactive substances (NPS) are known to provide various challenges for forensic toxicological case interpretation, starting with the identification of previously unknown substances. Furthermore, the pharmacological characteristics of these substances, including potency and metabolic processes, remain largely unstudied. In this particular medico-legal case, a 20-year-old man consumed clonazafone and fluoro-etonitazene, which were examined in blood by targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Additionally, a urine screening was conducted using LC-high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to investigate the metabolism of these substances, particularly clonazafone. Clonazafone was (semi-)quantified in urine (39 ng/mL), muscle tissue (3.0 ng/g), and stomach content (76'000 ng/mL), but could not be detected in peripheral blood, heart blood, and vitreous humor (lower limit of quantification: 0.1 ng/mL). Additionally, clonazepam (1.5 ng/mL) and its metabolite 7-amino-clonazepam (140 ng/mL), as well as amphetamine (110 ng/mL) and the designer-opioid fluoro-etonitazene (3.3 ng/mL) were found in blood. Within the HR screening, desglycylclonazafone, the intermediate of clonazafone that can be further converted into clonazepam, was detected in the stomach content and urine. Screening in urine has also revealed several metabolites of clonazafone. The cause of death was assumed to be a mixed drug intoxication with fluoro-etonitazene, clonazepam, and amphetamine.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145329196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A case of fatal intoxication with the novel synthetic opioid N-pyrrolidino protonitazene.","authors":"Sophia Wrbas, Tom R Sundermann, Volker Auwärter, Laura M Huppertz","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03618-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03618-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145312604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) and Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid following fatal traumatic brain injury.","authors":"Łukasz A Poniatowski, Agnieszka Siwińska, Magdalena Kwiatkowska, Mieszko Olczak","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03626-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03626-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a major contributor to mortality and is frequently the subject of forensic and neuropathological inquiries. In light of ongoing advances in neuroscience and clinical diagnostics, the development of novel bioanalytical methods and data interpretation tools for diagnosing TBI in both living and deceased individuals remains a pressing need. Among the proteins of growing interest are the multifunctional and evolutionarily conserved sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) and sirtuin 3 (SIRT3), due to their adaptive roles in mitochondrial energy metabolism, aging, genomic stability, inflammation, and oncogenesis. This study aimed to determine whether SIRT1 and SIRT3 levels are elevated in post-mortem biofluids, specifically serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in fatal TBI cases in a population-based autopsy survey. A total of 40 individuals were included, equally divided into two groups, individuals who died from traumatic brain injury (n = 20) and those who died from sudden cardiac or respiratory causes (n = 20), serving as controls. Serum and CSF samples were collected approximately 24 h post-mortem and analyzed using ELISA. The findings demonstrated significantly elevated SIRT1 concentrations in both serum and CSF in the TBI group. Therefore, further analyses demonstrated significantly higher SIRT3 concentrations in serum among study group after TBI. In cases with macroscopically unclear post-mortem abnormalities, a additional assessment of SIRT1 and SIRT3 in body fluids such as serum and CSF might theoretically be utilized to supplementary determination of the cause of death and the magnitude of brain damage for forensic medicine and neuropathological purposes. These findings support the hypothesis that sirtuin expression is altered in the acute phase of TBI and may serve as a useful biomarker in elucidating post-traumatic pathophysiological mechanisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145312693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microscopic cardiac pathology in forensic autopsies: a comparative study of anabolic androgenic steroid users and non-users.","authors":"Paula Katriina Vauhkonen, Jukka Matti Kiiskilä, Santtu Hytönen, Roosa Koskela, Mikko Ilari Mäyränpää, Katarina Mercedes Lindroos","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03630-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03630-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) abuse is a known risk factor for left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis. However, these changes are not exclusive to AAS abuse, and similar pathology is often observed in other types of cardiomyopathies. In this study, postmortem cardiac tissue specimens of AAS screened cases were re-examined in detail to determine, whether specific histopathological features could further support the detection of AAS abuse in forensic cause-of-death investigations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The sample comprised of 46 Finnish forensic autopsy cases, including 16 AAS positive and 30 AAS negative males, autopsied between 2016 and 2019. Microscopic histopathological features and interstitial lymphocytic inflammation in cardiac tissue were analysed using haematoxylin & eosin (HE), Herovici, and CD3 immunohistochemical staining.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>While overall frequencies of arteriolosclerosis, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, disarray, and fibrosis were similar between the groups, AAS positive cases tended to exhibit more interstitial type LV fibrosis, which was either diffuse or favouring the subepicardial layers. In contrast, right ventricular (RV) fibrosis was absent in AAS positive cases but present in 50% of AAS negative cases. Lymphocytic infiltration was lower in AAS positive cases, with significant differences in LV CD3 + cell densities.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study highlights that light microscopic examination of cardiac tissue may have limited capacity in distinguishing AAS users from non-users postmortem. However, specific patterns of fibrosis were discovered that may represent histopathological features associated with AAS abuse. Future studies should include larger samples to allow for more robust control of confounding factors and to assess the generalizability of these findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145312601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sudden cardiac death due to intussusception of a coronary artery: a case report.","authors":"Federica Attico, Francesco Di Paola, Matteo De Nadai, Gaetano Bulfamante, Andrea Verzeletti","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03632-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03632-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this case report, sudden cardiac death caused by intussusception of a coronary artery is discussed. A 47-year-old man was found dead in the nursing home where he lived, following an episode of polyphagia and two of vomiting. Upon cadaveric dissection, an overdistention of the large intestine was noted. Re-evaluation of the formalin-fixed whole heart revealed occlusion of the circumflex branch of the left coronary artery, which was not macroscopically attributable to vascular thrombosis or an atheromatous plaque. Histological investigations revealed ischaemic-type histological changes of the left ventricular wall in a hyperacute phase of evolution and, in the occluded coronary branch, extensive intraluminal invagination of the intima and media, as occurs in vascular intussusception. Further stains revealed the presence of fibromuscular dysplasia of the wall of the affected vessel. The subject's death was ascribable to an acute cardiovascular failure secondary to acute ischaemic myocardial injury induced by intussusception of a coronary artery affected by dysplastic degeneration. These findings fully account for death by a mechanism sustained both by a mechanical deficit of the cardiac pump and by the possible onset of arrhythmias. Arterial intussusception is a rare complication of spontaneous coronary artery dissection. It is assumed that a combination of predisposing factors, which weaken the arterial wall, and trigger events, such as Valsalva-like activities, underlie the onset of the latter condition. This case highlights the importance of considering rare causes of sudden cardiac death. Greater awareness of these conditions can contribute to a more accurate identification of causes of death, with significant implications in both forensic and clinical settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145307997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of a large off-ladder allele of the D21S2055 locus during population genetics analysis.","authors":"Hongqin Lin, Shuning Zhang, Dian Chen, Hong Yu, Lili Han, Li Lai","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03624-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03624-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[Abstract] Short tandem repeat (STR) loci within the human genome are extensively utilized in forensic DNA analysis because of their high level of polymorphism. At present, the combined DNA index system (CODIS) STRs are the principal ones adopted in the majority of general-purpose forensic kits. Moreover, non-CODIS STRs can serve as valuable supplementary tools for resolving complex paternity cases, conducting evolutionary studies, and performing population genetics analyses. Along with non-CODIS STRs, unusual DNA profiles have been consistently identified, as observed with CODIS STRs. In this present study, we investigated the allelic distribution and population genetics parameters of the D21S2055 locus in a cohort of 258 unrelated individuals from Fujian Province, China. The locus exhibited significant genetic diversity, with twenty-one distinct alleles, mostly spanning a size range from 16.1 to 38. Notably, a large off-ladder allele, 57.2, which was also included in the findings. The core repeat sequence of this allele was found to be [CTAT]₂CTAA[CTAT]₁₃[TATC]₃TAT[TATC]₁₄. TACTATCTCTATAT[TATC]₃TAT[TATC]₁₄[TATC]₂. The population genetic parameters, including the power of discrimination (PD), probability of paternity exclusion (PE) and polymorphic information content (PIC), were calculated as 0.9687, 0.7388, and 0.8576, respectively. In conclusion, it is essential to conduct population genetic analysis before applying non-CODIS STRs in forensic applications. Special emphasis should be placed on large off-ladder alleles that may extend beyond the designated locus region or overlap with an adjacent locus.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145300096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ear biometrics in forensic identification: from ear similarity quantification to kinship verification driven by deep learning approaches.","authors":"Xindi Wang, Zibo Zhao, Yufei Yang, Bo Liu, Chengye Zhou, Chuanxu Wang, Haibo Luo, Feng Song","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03636-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03636-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Kinship verification using biometric traits is crucial for finding missing children, rapid forensic identification, and social media analysis. Ear biometrics is gaining attention due to its uniqueness, permanence, and non-intrusiveness. However, current research on ear-based kinship verification is limited, and the factors associated with ear similarities across kinship-related individuals require to be evaluated. To fill this gap, our study developed deep learning models to quantify the similarity between ear images and conduct the kinship verification task. Two ear image datasets, namely SCED and CNKE, were collected from Chinese subjects. The SimiNet model, which utilized a pre-trained ResNet50 as its backbone, was constructed to evaluate the cosine similarity between ear image pairs. For kinship verification, the VTrans model was established by combining a pre-trained VGG16 with Transformer modules. Based on the cosine similarity, the SimiNet model obtained 93.53% accuracy and an AUC (Area Under the Curve) of 0.98 for personal verification. The similarity analysis further revealed that kinship-related individuals of the same sex displayed higher ear similarity scores. The VTrans model attained 71.17% accuracy and an AUC of 0.76 on the CNKE dataset. Heatmaps revealed that the VTrans model focused on the helix and the upper half of the ear during kinship verification. The model code has been provided in Github ( https://anonymous.4open.science/r/SimNet_VTrans-EB41 ) to facilitate refinement in future research. Our study has successfully established deep learning models for ear similarity quantification and kinship verification, providing effective tools for biometric forensic identification.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145292089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Molecular biology research progress in post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation in forensic medicine.","authors":"Ting He, Binghui Song, Junjiang Fu","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03625-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03625-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In forensic practice, accurately estimating post-mortem interval (PMI) is a crucially significant task, as it can provide key clues for cases in forensic medicine. However, it has also been a major challenge since ancient times. Currently, the traditional methods used in forensic medicine to infer PMI mainly include early post-mortem phenomena, corneal opacity, degree of gastric content digestion, and entomological analysis, but are significantly influenced by environmental factors and individual differences, presenting certain defects in terms of precision and applicability. With the advancement of modern molecular biology techniques, the application of gene expression analysis in the area of forensic medicine has gradually become a research hotspot. Moreover, the integration of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) can analyze multi-source data to construct prediction models, thereby improving the correctness of PMI inference and expanding its application scenarios. In this review, we elaborate on the research advancements, mainly in molecular biology or forensic molecular genetics of PMI estimation in forensic medicine. By systematically reviewing the latest research findings of molecular biology in PMI estimation and exploring its future directions, this review also endeavors to offer valuable references for forensic practitioners to improve the reliability of PMI inference in practical forensic potential applications in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145286084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of specific molecular markers in severe heatstroke using transcriptomics techniques.","authors":"Zhiao Duan, Mei Wang, Yunchao Zhou, Jianghuan Lu, Yixin Ma, Yuzhao Xu, Jianqiang Deng, Hui Liu, Jianhua Chen","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03634-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-025-03634-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Heatstroke and fever-related deaths pose significant diagnostic challenges in forensic practice due to overlapping clinical manifestations. This study aims to identify specific molecular markers distinguishing these conditions through transcriptomic profiling of liver tissues in mouse models.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We established mouse models of severe heatstroke (exposure to 42℃ high-temperature environment) and fever (LPS-induced), and collected liver tissues for RNA sequencing. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by DESeq2 and analyzed via GO and KEGG enrichment. Five candidate genes (Hspa1a, Hspa1b, Cyp7a1, Arrdc3, and G6pc) were validated by RT-qPCR and Western blotting.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Transcriptome profiling revealed 5,567 DEGs between the two groups, including 142 heatstroke-specific and 254 fever-specific genes. Heatstroke was characterized by significant up-regulation of Hspa1a, Hspa1b, Cyp7a1, Arrdc3, and G6pc, implicating pathways related to protein homeostasis, glucose metabolism, and energy regulation. In contrast, fever predominantly induced immune- and inflammation-related genes such as Gbp2, Lcn2, Gm12250, Zbp1, and Ccrl2. Importantly, RT-qPCR and Western blot assays consistently validated the differential expression of the five key genes (Hspa1a, Hspa1b, Cyp7a1, Arrdc3, and G6pc), confirming their potential as reliable biomarkers for distinguishing heatstroke from fever.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study provides comparative transcriptomic evidence distinguishing heatstroke from fever. The identified markers, particularly Hspa1a, Hspa1b, Cyp7a1, Arrdc3, and G6pc, may serve as potential forensic indicators for differentiating hyperthermia-related deaths, while also offering new insights into the molecular responses underlying heat stress and fever.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145280017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}