Iranian Journal of Forensic Medicine
Year:2006 | Volume:11 | Issue:4|Papers Count:10

Background & Aim: The homicide is the most serious crim in human societies. Killers applicate different methods to kill their victims. The motivations of homicide are different according to personal and social factors and environmental different. From the Post years, because of numerous, there have been created Transformation in crime process and involving methods for homicide in different human societies. For this purpose the epidemiologic study is systematically carrying out on murderes and victims in developed societies in order to creative transformation on crime process has been knowned and necessary procedures has done for precautions and reduction of this serious crime on time. The goal of this research is to determine of homicide methods and motivations in Tehran s metropolitan city.Materials & Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study is done on 347 victims, On the seconds half of the 1382 and the first half of the 1383 in Tehran. Data collection is done by post mortem examination, autopsy, lab tests, penal and medical records, scene of crime and interview with victims family and related questionnaires have been filled by proper statistical tests, such as chi square, Tukey HSD, onewoy analysis of variance and fishers exact. P Value£0.05 considered as significant difference.Results: The most important findings were:- 79.5% of victims were males.- Age mean of victims were 32.6±15.8 years.- The most killer s motivation was dispute (35.2%) and the least was sodomy (1.7%).- More than half of the homicides acured by using stab wounds and the most common used weapon was knife.There was a significant relationship between different methods and motivations homicde with age, sex, addiction, job, marriage state and nationality.Conclusion: With regard to this point that the most victims were male and were in youth and middle ages and the mojor motive of homicides was quarrel, and meanwhile the different methods of homicide and their motives are related to personal and social factors. There for we suggest that in charges of the society do their duties in face of the susceptible persons and with resolving the finanshial and spiritual deficiencies they eliminate the factors of commitment of homicide.

Background & Aim: the most common causes of sudden death are cardiac causes, this setting, myocarditis is considered as a cause of sudden death, especially in young age groups. This is obvious that diagnosis of myocarditis in sudden death is possible only by an autopsy and histopathology examination. With Myocarditis diagnosis and determining groups in danger, consequently, we can task steps in Ideal remedy for precaution and proper diagnosis. Materials & Methods: In a descriptive retrospective study (case series type) of 62 corpses with sudden death referred to legal medicine organization of Iran (Tehran's center), between 1379-1381, wich in them myocarditis had been confirmed by histopathological evidences in autopsy, we studied some of underlying factors including; age, gender, the history of addiction, underlying diseases, the season of sudden death occurrence, cardiac and non-cardiac accompanying pathologies, and the agreement between clinical and histopathological diagnosis.Results: The mean age was 27.5±18.1 years and the greatest and least frequencies of sudden death were in 21-40 years old and>60 years old 65.5% of them were male, respectively. We did not found a significant seasonal variation of sudden death among seasons. From the point of underlying disease, a great percentage of the studied sample had a history of infection (mostly respiratory infection) just before the sudden death (37.1%), following by perioperative complications (9.7%), and a history of trauma (6.5%). The history of opioid addiction (35.5%). in autopsy, cardiac appearance in the majority of cases was normal (63.9%). The most common accompanying cardiac pathologies were: pericarditis (11.3%), and the most accompanying non-cardiac pathologies were: pneumonia and/or bronchopneumonia (53.2%). By clinical decision, the causes of sudden death had been diagnosed only in 19.4% cases.Conclusion: young age, history of infection and drug addiction are risk factors for myocarditis. It isn't properly diagnosable in bedside.

Background & Aim: Addiction to opioid substances is a worldwide problem and identification of opioid abusers has an important role for preventing medical and social advers effects of theses substances. There are many methods for screening and analysis of opioid comparison with routine screening tests. In biological samples e.g. immunochromatography and thin lager chromatography (TLC). These methods, in spite of some preferences like speediness and cheapness, have some shortcomings like invasive (need to take blood or urine samples) and need to chemical reagents. In recent years pupil reflexometry technology which its basis is to study and video record of pupil movement followed to optical stimulation and computer interpretation, is discussed in diagnosis of opioid misapplication. The advantages of this method are lack of need to biologic samples (like blood and urine), being immune of laboratory results from intention manipulations, the high level of speediness in reaching to the conclusions and determining opioid misapplication until 21 days after drug no consumption period. The mentioned cases particularly in legal toxicology are very important. There for we designed this study for evaluations of efficacy of pupil reflexometry as a screening method for opioid detection in abusers in comparison with routine screening tests.Materials & Methods: This study was performed on 158 subjects who referred to forensic toxicology laboratory of Legal Medicine Organization (LMO). At first information query was filled for each individual who include information about gender, age, background of eye and nervous diseases, the history of consumed drugs and surgeries. In order to test, first of all each person was being in a calm position for from any voices and high flashes for 15 minutes. In this study pupil reflexometery was performed by (Iritech, DM-2010) urine samples were obtained for TLC and immunochromatography simultaneously.Results: In this study 158 (117 male and 41 female) subjects were tested. Age rang was between 22-69 years with average of 35.6±0.8 years. The results showed that in pupil reflexometery method 70 (44.30%) subjects had negative results and 88 (55.70%) subjects had positive results. In cases with pupil reflexometery negative results 3 (4.28%) subjects had positive results (false negative) and in cases with pupil refelexometery positive results only 9 (10.23%) subjects had positive result in TLC. Conclusion: Pupil reflexometery is a suitable screening test for negative cases but inpositive cases because of the presence of interfering factors such as the history of consumed drugs, eye and nervous diseases, is no valid as a screening test. In legal cases performing of supplementary testing like thin larger chromatography (TLC) for analyzing of opioid misapplication is necessary.

Background & Aim: Mood disorders are one of the most important psychiatric disorders. The reason of these disorders is multifactor and it seems that biological, psychological, social and hereditary factors have a role in these disorders. In this survey recognition of genetics factors related to bipolar disorder, the condition of ABO and Rh blood groups were evaluated in bipolar I disorder patients.Materials and Methods: this survey was descriptive analytical so that conducted sequentially on primary diagnosed bipolar 1 patients from Mordad of 1382 to Mehr of 1383 in Imam Hossein hospital. Patients who after obtaining written consent which based on DSM-IV had been diagnosed bipolar 1 the clinical interview was done. After determining of blood samples and RH, the rampancy of blood groups (O, AB, B, A) and RH was compared with general population.Results: 162 bipolar patients including 62 (42.6%) male and 93 (57.4%) female were evaluated. No significant difference was shown between bipolar 1 patients and general population, apart from gender and age, on various blood groups and RH.Conclusion: It seems that finding one specific genetic linkage in bipolar 1 disorder to be useless and concerning to polygenic models with linking analysis in different locusses are helpful to recognize more genetic factors of mentioned disorder.

Background & Aim: Absence of laws regarding legal abortion in cases of fetal anomalies and diseases was a problem that was solved in 1997 with a fatwa issued by the grand leader of Islamic revolution in Iran that permitted therapeutic abortion in cases of major thalassemia. In 2002, Iranian legal medicine organization developed a set of regulations governing therapeutic abortion cases, and eventually it was approved by the parliament in 2005 and be lame a law.Materials & Methods: This study was a descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective one that was carried out by probing in previous records of these cases in legal medicine centers of Iran, the data were transferred to prepared forms and then analyzed by SPSS software.Results: The results show that form loll permitted issued cases with one year performance of therapeutic Abortion, the causes of 64% of them were about fetuses with diseases and anomalies and 36% about maternal diseases. The most important fetal anomalies and diseases were anencephaly and major thalassemia, and the most important maternal diseases were cardiovascular diseases. The average of mother s age at time of issuance of permit was 29.4 years and that of the fetus was 12.8 weeks. Conclusion: A significant number of those who previously would have using illegal ways of abortion, now can resort to legal methods provided in these regulations, which has a positive impact on pregnant women s health. Since this set of regulations is based on Islamic principles and up-to-date medical findings it can serve as a model for other Islamic countries.

Background & Aim: Almost 1/4 all of women's cancers is breast cancer which is second factor of death due to cancer. Loosing breasts plus side effects of chemotherapy produce many problem for patients. Chemotherapy, can induce a modification of body image, femininity, power of seduction and sexuality.In view of the fact that Counseling one of nurses duty and roles which can help patients finding appropriate approach for their problems. Thus researchers decided to survey the effect of group counseling on sexual health of women with breast cancer under going chemotherapy.Materials & Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial. 114 women 25-55 years old undergoing chemotherapy due to breast cancer and with mastectomy history were studied in two groups: control group (Standard care n=63) and case group (standard care+ counseling n=51). It was designed 5 session of counseling for case group. Body image, sexual functioning and sexual enjoyment of patients were measured in start and end of study by standard questionnaire (QLQ-Br 23). Results: Results revealed that group counseling cause promotion of these items: body image, sexual functioning and sexual enjoyment. Sexual health of patients were improved by means of group counseling (P Value<0.001). Conclusion: Regarding to the results of with represents the effects of group counseling on quality of sexual life of patients with breast cancer Treated with chemotherapy it is recommended designed group counseling program was apply as an effective approach in sexual health promotion in such clients.

Introduction: One of the most important cases of death in human society is the cardiovascular disease and more than 50% of them are cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases are one of the important causes of disability and physical and mental debility. With regard to this point, returning to work after cardiac diseases is a notable problem, that means, examining mental and physical ability of subject for returning to work and examining the hazards of patient's occupational environment which may cause intensity of disease or cause the recurrence of heart attack.Discussion: Despite the non-suitable physical and mental condition, if a patient returns to work, he is in the risk of the recurrence of heart attack and he may be create dangers for his colleagues and thus he will make many human and economic problems. In the other hand, if he returns to work late he will experience also economic and psychological problems (like depression) and we will loss an expert member of society without reason. In developed countries all of the patients who past heart attacks enter in a cardiac rehabilitation program. This program begins from the time of the admission of the patients in hospital and has different steps. One of theses steps is preparing the patients for return to their job safely and as soon as possible. In this step patients are prepared and also assessed for returning to work. Conclusion: There are 3 principal factors for assessing the patient's capacity: environmental factors, personal and medical factors, occupational factors. A physician decides about returning a patient to job depending on the environmental factors (like temperature, duration of work and shift work, chemical and physical hazards and risks , availability of cardiac care, ...); personal and medical factors (like myocardial function, extension of myocardial damage, cardiovascular capacity, ) and occupational factors (like having static activities, competition activities, work-rest program, needed energy for that job,). Of course for different cardiovascular diseases we can consider special points, we will note to theses points.

Background & Aim: Non-organic hearing loss is a relevant problem in medicolegal evaluations of hearing impairment. Physiological and electrophysiological procedures as objective tests play a major role in verification of audiogram and estimation of true hearing thresholds in pseudohypoacusis -suspected and compensation cases. Materials & Methods: By reviewing audiologic literatures and articles published in MEDLINE, we investigated advantages and drawbacks of objective audiologic procedures used in assessment of hearing loss for medicolegal purposes.Results: Tympanometry, Acoustic Reflex and Otoacoustic Emission provide valuable qualitative information about true hearing thresholds. Currently click-evoked ABR is the most popular auditory electrophysiological procedure in medicolegal evaluation of hearing loss worldwide, in spite of that its threshold cannot be compared with pure tone thresholds. Auditory evoked long latency potentials-ALLR (P1-N1-P2) and auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) can be used for detecting pseudohypoacusis and estimating true hearing thresholds in malingering persons.Conclusion: Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR), with good frequency-specificity, favorable objectivity, resistance to state of consciousness, absence of gender bias and close correlation with behavioral thresholds have a potential to be the choice method in predicting behavioral hearing threshold of difficult-to-test patients such as pseudohypacustic cases.