Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

Amitraz is a triazapentadiene compound, and is a member of amidine chemical family. It is used as an insecticide and acaricide for controlling red spider mites, leaf mines, scale insects and aphids. In animals, it is used to control tics, mites, lice, and other animal pests. Aim: to study the clinical features, laboratory abnormalities, complications, and outcome of the patients with acute amitraz intoxication. Materials and methods – retrospective analysis of patients of acute amitraz intoxication admitted to rural medical college loni over a period of 2 years (from september 06 to august 08) was done. Result – a total of 83 patients were admitted to our hospital with acute amitraz intoxication (54 males and 29 females). Analysis of the clinical features revealed that patients had following symptoms in decreasing order of frequency: cns depression (83 patients), vomiting (72 patients), bradycardia (26 patients), hypotension (3 patients) and respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation (2 patients).Summary & conclusion: the most common clinical feature is cns depression and patients should be watched for signs of impending respiratory failure. Treatment is essentially symptomatic as there is no specific antidote.

Keywords: amitraz, cns depression, respiratory failure.

Background: Poisonous snake bites are medical emergencies and can be deadly fatal if not treated early. In India majority of the population lives in rural areas where incidence of snake bite is high and they are the one who are deprived of tertiary health care. Aims: This study was aimed to assess socio-demographic factors of patients presenting with snake bite. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective record based study conducted at St. Luke’s Hospital, Shrirampur Dist. Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) consists of 302 snake bite, over a period of two years from January 2007 to December 2008. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used for the data collection. Results: In the present study, out of total 302 patients, 196 (64.90%) were males and 106 (35.09%) were females. In majority (47.68%) of cases snake bite took place in the evening. In maximum cases the bite mark were seen on lower limb (58.27%). 206 (68.21%) cases of snake bites were in farm/ field followed by garden 50 (16.55%). Majority of incidence of snake bite was amongst those directly involved in the agricultural work (74.50%).

Key words: Snake bite, occupational hazards, agricultural workers

Background: mental retardation is a generalized disorder, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors with onset before the age of 18 yrs. The mental health of the child affects his physical health and the learning process. Objectives: to study the pattern of mental retardation among mentally retarded children in rural maharashtra. Material & methods: the present study was conducted on 232 mentally retarded children in school for mentally challenged. A detailed study of their health status and etiological factors was recorded on a pre-designed and pre-tested proforma. Setting: school for mentally challenged at sangamner, nasik district in rural maharashtra. Study design: cross sectional study. Statistical analysis: spss statistical software. Results: majority (68.0%) of mentally retarded children were in from the age group 5-9 years. Most (43.0%) of the children had moderate retardation. Down’s syndrome was the commonest clinical syndrome (17.23%) associated with mental retardation. 60.35% children were off springs of consanguineous marriages. Most causes for mental retardation, were unknown or idiopathic (63.8%) and genetic (29.31%). Conclusion: there is need for genetic, premarital counseling and forensic psychiatry to limit problem due to mental retardation.

Key words: Mentally retarded child, consanguineous marriage, intellectual disability, juvenile delinquency

Background: the first six years of life are the formative period of life. The foundations of healthy personality or otherwise, are laid during this period when the child’s world is his parents and his home. Given a plastic mind and being in the closet association with parents his personality development will be influenced by attitude of parents. Aims: this study was done to know the reasons behind delinquent nature of children. One of the factors is the parent’s criminal behavior which affects the children. In the present study total 102 cases are examined in 2 years at remand home, ahmednagar. Materials and methods: there were 49 cases those remanded in year 2004, the information and data are collected retrospectively and 53 cases that were admitted in remand home in the year 2005, those data and information were collected prospectively. Results: the present study includes retrospective data of 49 cases and prospective data of 53 cases in 2005, constituting total of 102 cases of juvenile delinquency. All the cases i.e. 102 cases were males. Maximum cases (50%) occurred between age group of 16 – 18 yrs. Most of the children left the school after studying up to 10th std. Thirty one cases were illiterate. Majority of children did not get the affection of their parents. In 30% cases fathers were died & in 10% cases mothers were died & 3% cases both were died. Out of 102 cases, 58 cases have more than 3 siblings. Predominantly (89%) were from lower socio economic class. Parents of all delinquent children were illiterate. 37.25 % of children were involved in theft, followed by riot (17.65%). Delinquent children also committed serious offences like rape (4%) cases, unnatural sexual offences such as anal intercourse (2%) cases & murder (3%) cases.

Key words: Juvenile delinquency, remand home, education, family size, criminal activities.

Stature is among the factors required to establish individuality of an unidentified dead, body or any mutilated part of such body. A dismembered body parts are being frequently brought to the Medico-legal expert for generating data for identification, due to incidence of mass disasters like air crash, terrorist attacks etc. Which is quiet frequent now a days? In present study an attempt is made to estimate the stature from percutaneous tibial length (PCTL). Study consists of 100 adult males and 100 adult females between the age group of 20 – 60 years, born in Maharashtra. On computing the data, it was found that a significant positive correlation exists between the stature and percutaneous tibial length. Stature was estimated from percutaneous tibial length using simple regression analysis.

Key words: Stature, percutaneous tibial length (PCTL) and regression equation.
 

Backgrounds: Next to hard tissues like bones, teeth and nails, hair is stable under adverse natural conditions. Hence, hair are recovered along with other skeletal remains and sent for examination. Here the question often asked is whether the hair is of human or not? Aims: The present study is carried out to find the most reliable quantative parameter for differentiation of the human hair from the animal hair. Materials & Methods: Hair samples from various species of animal and various sites of human hairs were obtained. In the present study the diameter of shaft, diameter of medulla and the medullary index of the human and different animal hair were measured. It was found that, medullary index, which was less than 0.25 in human hair and more than 0.44 in animal hair is useful parameter to distinguish between human and animal hair.

Key Words: Human & animal hair, Diameter, Medullary index, Forensic application.
 

The study entitled pattern of thoraco-abdominal injuries in rural region was carried out at rural medical college, loni, was done over a period of two and half years from january 2005 to june 2007, and consists of 173 cases of thoraco-abdominal injuries, out of which 118 were admitted to pravara rural hospital for treatment and 55 were brought dead to the hospital. Out of 118 admitted cases of thoraco- abdominal injuries to hospital 80 were treated and discharged and remaining 38 died during the treatment, thus out of 173 cases of thoraco-abdominal injuries 93 were autopsied and 80 treated and discharged. Present study revealed that 82.6% of victims were males and mostly in age group of 21 – 40 years i.e. 53.75% among both fatal and non-fatal groups. Accidental occurrence of thoraco-abdominal injuries was commonest followed by homicidal and suicidal. Among accidental occurrences road traffic accidents was the commonest cause for thoraco-abdominal injuries (84.9%), study also revealed that a majority of victims of thoraco-abdominal injuries i.e. 32.25% died on the spot, 23.64% died within 12 hours of sustaining injuries, 6.45% of victims survived for 1 to 7 days and only 3.22% were survived for more than a week after sustaining a injuries. Pattern of thoraco-abdominal injuries shows that the commonest injury of thoracic region was fracture of ribs among both fatal and non-fatal categories and most commonly affected thoracic organs were lungs (32.31%) and injuries to heart comprises for only 4.04%. Among abdominal injuries the most commonly affected organ was liver (20.23%) followed by spleen (16.18%) and kidneys (12.71%) and among hollow viscus injury to intestine was more frequent i.e. 7.51% followed by injuries to urinary bladder 6.93% and stomach 2.89%.

Key words: thoraco-abdominal, manner, pattern, injury.