the dead Flashcards
Give purposes of identifying the dead
Civil law (estates etc.)
Social - closure for families
Assessment of injuries - eg transport accidents
How would you determine the sex of a body
sexual organs
Pelvis and skull shape
how would you determine the age of a body
child less ossification/ have more epiphyses
Adult - fully ossify by 25
Examine teeth
how would you determine stature
Height taken from ankles
individual bones eg. hemur
give examples of comparative methods
feautres such as hairstyle, eye colour, facial hair etc
tattoos
give examples of useful medical information to identify the dead
surgical procedures, prostheses, gallstones, arthritis, deformities
What personal identification methods can be used
Fingerprints - criminal record/ possessions
Dental records
DNA profiling - hair, toothbrush, guthrie card
Define death
The irreversible failure of the cardiovascular system
What causes circulating blood to become stagnant
Gravity
When is the best opportunity for timing of death
first 18 hours
What is the mainstay way of determining time of death
Body temperature in first 12 hours - rate of body cooling follows a sigmoid shaped curve
rule of thumb - 1 degree an hour
Why can’t the rate at which the stomach empties be used to measure time of death?
Too many factors influence rate eg. amount of food, solid vs liquids, stress, medications
What is rigor mortis
stiffening and shortening of muscle fibres leading to rigidity of the musculature and fixation of the joints
due to reduction of ATP
Becomes apparent 5-7 hours after death, fully established after 12
What is putrefaction
caused by bacterial micro-organisms
2-3 days - greenish discoloration of skin
1 week - blister formation
define mummification
Process of dry decomposition, with desiccation of the body
particularly prone in infants
Define adipocere formation
Induced by the alteration of fatty tissue within the body into a greasy, waxy or brittle material which frequently remains attatched to the bony skeleton and may retain the body structure to some extent
tends to occur in damp/ wet environments
Define skeletonisation
The condition when all of the soft tissue of the body has completely degraded
What does post mortem hypostasis represent
The pooling of stagnant blood in dependent regions of the body under the influence of gravity
Begins as soon as circulation of blood ceases but takes around 1-2 hours to become visable
What will happen to the body surface where pressure has been applied
Compression of the blood vessels, preventing ingress of blood, demonstarted by areas of ‘pressure pallor’ within hypostasis.
What is useful about post mortem hypostasis
help in ascertaining the position of the body after death and can indicate if the body has been moved after death
What can the colour of hypostasis tell
usually pink/ purple in colour
‘cherry red’ - indicator of carbon monoxide poisoning
‘red brown’ - may be seen with methaemoglobin (caused by certain chemicals or drugs)
Define post mortem artefacts
alteration or damage to the bodcesses occuring in lifewhich may mimic genuine processes occuring in life
Give examples of post mortem artefacts
resuscitation
animal predation
traumatic injury eg run over after death,
