Testing for alpha-chloralose by headspace-GC/MS. A case report.

A case is presented involving an acute fatality resulting from self-administered alpha-chloralose, a rodenticide. A 18-year-old man was found dead at home, with several stains of vomit on the carpet. An empty box of three bags of 5 g 100% alpha-chloralose (Corbeaux nuisibles, Rhône Poulenc) was found near the body. The compound was identified and quantified by headspace gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Alpha-chloralose was converted by concentrated sulphuric acid into chloral, a volatile compound, that was, after chromatography on a HP5-MS capillary column, identified by the following ions, m/z 82, 111 and 148. Peripheral blood concentration was 175.7 mg/l. Alpha-chloralose was quantified in several tissues, indicating kidney sequestration. No other drugs, including ethanol, were detected.

Diatom analysis in victim's tissues as an indicator of the site of drowning.

The diagnosis of drowning is one of the most difficult in forensic pathology and previously we proposed criteria for a positive tissue analysis according to the qualitative and quantitative diatom investigations. In the positive cases, we studied the reliability of determining the site of drowning by comparing the diatom taxa found in the lung samples with those of the water samples or in the absence of these samples with the results of the water diatom monitoring programme set up in our region. In this study, we present two series of cases, the first is one of 20 corpses who died from accidental or suicidal drowning with known drowning site, and the second of 20 corpses for which the drowning site was unknown. The results showed that a concordance of the abundance of the diatom taxa in tissues compared to the site of drowning and their distribution relative to one another was 65% in the group where the site of drowning was known and 35% in the other group. The concordance of the individual distribution in the lungs of water diatom taxa may be an interesting method to guide the investigations for determining the site of drowning. The two limiting factors are the concentration of diatoms in the lungs and the development of a river monitoring programme in the district of the study.

Suicidal hanging resulting in complete decapitation: a case report.

This paper reports the case of a 22-year-old man, weighing 87.5 kg, who committed suicide by jumping from a bridge over a canal with a nylon rope tied around his neck. The drop height was between 3.70 and 5.30 m before the rope tightened and the subject was completely beheaded. The head sank straight under the bridge, while the torso floated 205 m downstream. Pertinent autopsy findings were a sharp decapitation wound with circumferential skin abrasion and cervical spin transection between C1 and C2. Decapitation is a complication of extreme rarity in the event of a suicidal hanging and is always related to a drop of several metres with a poorly extensible line used as the hanging ligature.

Acute fatal poisoning with dichlorophen.

A case is presented involving an acute fatality resulting from self-administered dichlorophen, a chlorophenol fungicide. The compound was quantified using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry after extraction with methyl-tert-butyl ether, derivatization by methylation and separation on a HP5-MS capillary column. The blood concentration was 9.77 mg/l and other drugs, including ethanol, were not detected.