Pathology Flashcards
ME vs Coroner
Me: medical doctor appointed by the governing area
C: elected official w/ no special medical training– except in 4 states it is a medical doctor
ME Job
- Identify the deceased
- Establish the time and date of death
-determine manner causes and mechanism of death
-responsible for the body and all effects on the body even at the crime scene
Medical vs Forensic autopsy
F: performed when suspicious, unknown death
M: to better understand diseases and causes of death
rokitansky method
remove organs all at once
Virchow procedure
each organ comes out seerateky and is immediately examined
Skull incision and importance
ear to ear behind the head– determine what happened antemortem and postmortem
prone
lying face down
supine
lying face up
Organs are weighed because
to look for signs of injury and disease
Rigor Mortis
Stiffness of body
if body temp warm and not stiff: dead >3
warm but stiff: 3-8 hrd
cold and stiff: 8-36
cold and not stiff: <36
Livor mortis
is the settling of blood, causing skin to change colors shows after 8 hours
lividity
indicates the position of the body–fixed
after 10-15 hrs
Algor mortis
body temp–changes to room temp over time
algor mortis formula
98.6-measured temp/1.5 = hrs since death
how long for blood to dry
30 min - 2 hrs
discoloration of skin time
24 hrs-36 hrs (abdomen)
bloating time
36-48 jrs
skin slippage time
4-7 days
absence of smell from bones time
more than a year
eye changes
cornea drying (eyes open) - minutes
cornea drying (eyes closed) - 2 hours
corneal cloudiness (eyes open) - less than 2 hours
corneal cloudiness (eyes closed) - 12 to 24 hours
eyeball collapse - more than 24 hours
Stomae
light: last 1-2 hrs
medium last 3-4
heavy 4-6
Potassium
increased amounts while living but equals out after death
Potassium formula
7.14 x pot. - 39.1 = time since death
Traumatic deaths
mechanical: blunt force
thermal : excessive heat
asphyxia: interference of oxygen
Manner of death
natural: natural disease (lung disease)
accident: result from unintentional action (OD, motor vehicle accident)
suicide: intentional (hanging)
homicide: death by another (stabbing, shooting(
undetermined: death cannot be known for sure (suicide od vs accidental od)
cause of death
that which resulted in death
mechanism
the physiological reason the body ceased living
autolysis
spontaneous breakdown of cells
