Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 35 in total

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  1. Murty OP
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2009 May;16(4):224-7.
    PMID: 19329081 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.12.027
    A teenager college student was fatally injured by burst tyre air pressure while waiting on a public bus stand to catch a bus to reach her college at Kuala Lumpur. She accidentally came near the wheel while boarding when tube and tyre got burst .The air pressure had blown the girl in the air and she subsequently fell on a rough surface. The iron-locking rim of the wheel acted as a missile and hit the girl. She died on her way to the hospital. A medico-legal autopsy was performed which showed extensive injuries in the cranial and chest cavity. Head had large scalp laceration with diffuse separation and gaping from in the vault region; skull bones were fractured. Chest cavity had extensive rib fractures, lacerated lungs and haemo-thorax while externally there was no obvious injury. It requires intensive care management and screening of the victims. Tyre-blast injuries are not so common. This case exposes the hazard due to burst tyre.
  2. Subramaniam K, Sheppard MN
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2018 Feb;54:127-129.
    PMID: 29413954 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2018.01.005
    OBJECTIVES: Aortic dissection (AD) can be a challenging diagnosis. At autopsy, the aorta may not be dilated and intimal tears may be missed or found without obvious rupture or haemorrhage. We report our experience of AD at a tertiary referral centre with review of 32 cases and discuss 2 unusual complications.

    METHODS/RESULTS: 32 cases of which 12 females and 20 male and 18 out of 32 cases were aged below 40. All of the cases were examined macroscopically and microscopically. 30 out of 32 cases (93%) died due to rupture associated with the AD. Two unusual complications were proximal extension of AD into left coronary artery (CA) with intramural haematoma blocking the vessel and AD involving the ostium of the right CA resulting in avulsion of the right CA from the aorta. Mode of death in both these cases were myocardial ischemia. Sections of the aorta in all cases confirmed extensive cystic medial degeneration with disorganisation, fragmentation and disappearance of the elastin fibres with increased collagen and smooth muscle nuclear degeneration.

    CONCLUSION: Pathologists should be thorough when examining the aorta, the aortic valve and root in AD. When a rupture site cannot be found it is important to look for unusual complications involving the CAs. Histology plays an important role to corroborate the cause of death.

  3. Wong YL, Khoo LS, Ibrahim MA, Mohamad Noor MH, Mahmood MS
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2021 Oct;83:102253.
    PMID: 34543893 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2021.102253
    BACKGROUND: Blast related deaths are often shrouded by diagnostic and medicolegal complexities requiring multidisciplinary expertise in order to gauge accurate identification of the victims and document scientific investigations comprehensively. In the advent of more sophisticated technology, anthropologic methods can now be applied into post mortem imaging interpretation. The traditional imaging roles of characterizing osseous fragmentation, detecting and localizing foreign bodies can be expanded to simulate and support physical anthropologic examination to assist in documentation for court proceedings.

    CASE PRESENTATION: An assemblage of unidentified, incomplete, highly fragmented skeletal remains were found scattered on a bare area of land in a forest. There was evidence of an explosion given the pattern of scattered evidentiary material of explosive and ballistic nature. Laboratory analysis of white powder found within the explosive material confirmed the presence of high impact C4-explosive trace containing cyclotrimethylene trinitramin [Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX)] & pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). It took meticulous multidisciplinary efforts to confirm the identity of the victim that was marred by the severe fragmentation and skeletalization of the remains. The initial radiologic interpretation focused more on identification of foreign bodies and supporting documentation of fragmentation. With the current availability of post computed tomography (PMCT) in our center, we reexamined the value and potential of PMXR and PMCT as an adjunctive tool for biological profiling.

    CONCLUSION: This was the first case of C4-blast related death reported in Malaysia. The multidisciplinary approach in efforts to identify the victim may serve as a guide in managing, coordinating and maximizing the expertise of different forensic specialists, with emphasis on anthropologic and radiologic collaboration.

  4. Woon CK, Omar E, Siew SF, Nawawi HM, Kasim NAM, Chainchel Singh MK
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2024 Feb 01;102:102654.
    PMID: 38310784 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2024.102654
    Coronary atherosclerosis is due to build-up of plaque within the coronary arteries. Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) allows non or minimally invasive visualization of abnormalities prior to an autopsy, however PMCT-angiography (PMCTA) greatly enhances relevant findings, especially in viewing the cardiovascular system which is important in the diagnosis of coronary atherosclerosis. Contrast media used in PMCTA however has been reported to cause distortion of tissue which may interfere with post-mortem investigation outcomes. A cross sectional study to investigate the effect of PMCTA on tissue biomarkers in coronary arteries was performed involving cases brought in dead to the Institute and Accident and Emergency Unit. Sixty-three autopsy cases were included in this study, whereby 18 cases underwent PMCT while 45 cases underwent PMCTA. The subjects subsequently had a conventional autopsy where coronary artery sections were collected for standard histological examination and immunohistochemistry examination for endothelial inflammatory (CD36), prothrombogenic (TPA) and plaque stability (MMP-9) markers. The subjects consisted of 55 males and 8 females with a mean age ±SD of 49 ± 18.11 years. There were no significant differences in the coronary artery endothelial expression of CD36, MMP-9 and TPA between PMCT and PMCTA subjects. PMCTA does not alter CD36, TPA and MMP-9 markers supporting the safe use of PMCTA in post-mortem examinations.
  5. Mansourvar M, Ismail MA, Raj RG, Kareem SA, Aik S, Gunalan R, et al.
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2014 Feb;22:26-9.
    PMID: 24485416 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2013.11.011
    Recently, determination of skeletal age, defined as the assessment of bone age, has rapidly become an important task between forensic experts and radiologists. The Greulich-Pyle (GP) atlas is one of the most frequently used methods for the assessment of skeletal age around the world. After presentation of the GP approach for the estimation of the bone age, much research has been conducted to examine the usability of this method in various geographic or ethnic categories. This study investigates on a small-scale and compares the reliability of the GP atlas for assessment of the bone age for four ethnic groups - Asian, African/American, Caucasian and Hispanic - for a different range of ages.
  6. Murty OP, Mun KS, Hussin H
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2008 Jan;15(1):37-41.
    PMID: 18309549
    This is a case report of 16-year-old adolescent school boy who died due to unusual calcification of coronary arteries. He died while cycling with his friends. While cycling fast he fell. He was brought dead to hospital. At times unsuspected cardiac lesions cause sudden death during extraneous physical activities in healthy persons. Sudden death in adolescents is not very common. It is an unusual case as apparently healthy adolescent boy actively participating in sports had stony hard coronary arteries. The coronaries showed advanced calcification and early bone formation. The myocardial septum had extensive fibrosis. The pathogenesis and other possible similar conditions are also discussed in the report.
  7. Kavitha R, Nazni WA, Tan TC, Lee HL, Azirun MS
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2013 Jul;20(5):480-2.
    PMID: 23756518 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2013.03.007
    Forensic entomological specimens collected from human decedents during crime scene investigations in Malaysia in the past 6 years (2005-2010) are reviewed. A total of 80 cases were recorded and 93 specimens were collected. From these specimens, 10 species of cyclorrphagic flies were identified, consisting of Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart) -38 specimens (40.86%), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) -36 specimens (38.70%), Chrysomya villeneuvi (Patton) -2 specimens (2.15%), Chrysomya nigripes (Aubertin) -2 specimens (2.15%), Chrysomya pinguis (Walker) -1 specimen (1.08%), Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus) -1 specimen (1.08%), Hemipyrellia liguriens (Wiedemann) -5 specimens (5.37%), Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Wulp) -1 specimen (1.08%), Megaselia scalaris (Loew)-1 specimen (1.08%) and Sarcophaga ruficornis (Fabricius) -4 specimens (4.30%). In two specimens (2.15%), the maggots were not identifiable. Ch. megacephala and Ch. rufifacies were the commonest species found in human decedents from three different ecological habitats. S. nudiseta is an uncommon species found only on human cadavers from indoors. A total of 75 cases (93.75%) had a single fly infestation and 5 cases (6.25%) had double fly infestation. In conclusion, although large numbers of fly species were found on human decedents, the predominant species are still those of Chrysomya.
  8. Abdel Aziz MH, Badr El Dine FM, Saeed NM
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2016 Nov;44:103-110.
    PMID: 27743546 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.10.003
    INTRODUCTION: Identification of sex and ethnicity has always been a challenge in the fields of forensic medicine and criminal investigations. Fingerprinting and DNA comparisons are probably the most common techniques used in this context. However, since they cannot always be used, it is necessary to apply different and less known techniques such as lip prints.

    AIM OF THE WORK: Is to study the pattern of lip print in Egyptian and Malaysian populations and its relation to sex and populations difference. Also, to develop equations for sex and populations detection using lip print pattern by different populations (Egyptian and Malaysian).

    SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The sample comprised of 120 adults volunteers divided into two ethnic groups; sixty adult Egyptians (30 males and 30 females) and sixty adult Malaysians (30 males and 30 females). The lip prints were collected on a white paper. Each lip print was divided into four compartments and were classified and scored according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classification. Data were statistically analyzed.

    RESULTS: The results showed that type III lip print pattern (intersected grooves) was the predominant type in both the Egyptian and Malaysian populations. Type II and III were the most frequent in Egyptian males (28.3% each), while in Egyptian females type III pattern was predominant (46.7%). As regards Malaysian males, type III lip print pattern was the predominant one (41.7%), while type II lip print pattern was predominant (30.8%) in Malaysian females. Statistical analysis of different quadrants showed significant differences between males and females in the Egyptian population in the third and fourth quadrants. On the other hand, significant differences were detected only in the second quadrant between Malaysian males and females. Also, a statistically significant difference was present in the second quadrant between Egyptian and Malaysian males. Using the regression analysis, four regression equations were obtained.

  9. Mujtaba G, Shuib L, Raj RG, Rajandram R, Shaikh K
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2018 Jul;57:41-50.
    PMID: 29801951 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2017.07.001
    OBJECTIVES: Automatic text classification techniques are useful for classifying plaintext medical documents. This study aims to automatically predict the cause of death from free text forensic autopsy reports by comparing various schemes for feature extraction, term weighing or feature value representation, text classification, and feature reduction.

    METHODS: For experiments, the autopsy reports belonging to eight different causes of death were collected, preprocessed and converted into 43 master feature vectors using various schemes for feature extraction, representation, and reduction. The six different text classification techniques were applied on these 43 master feature vectors to construct a classification model that can predict the cause of death. Finally, classification model performance was evaluated using four performance measures i.e. overall accuracy, macro precision, macro-F-measure, and macro recall.

    RESULTS: From experiments, it was found that that unigram features obtained the highest performance compared to bigram, trigram, and hybrid-gram features. Furthermore, in feature representation schemes, term frequency, and term frequency with inverse document frequency obtained similar and better results when compared with binary frequency, and normalized term frequency with inverse document frequency. Furthermore, the chi-square feature reduction approach outperformed Pearson correlation, and information gain approaches. Finally, in text classification algorithms, support vector machine classifier outperforms random forest, Naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbor, decision tree, and ensemble-voted classifier.

    CONCLUSION: Our results and comparisons hold practical importance and serve as references for future works. Moreover, the comparison outputs will act as state-of-art techniques to compare future proposals with existing automated text classification techniques.

  10. Nor FM, Das S
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2011 Oct;18(7):336-9.
    PMID: 21907941 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2011.06.013
    We hereby present a case of planned complex suicide. In this case study, we report a teen-aged girl who committed suicide by strangulating herself, and subsequently fell from the 13th floor of a housing apartment. The planned complex suicide was substantiated by the presence of a suicide note and a photograph captured in a mobile handset. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first case involving self-strangulation and fall from height, in which the photograph was stored in the handset. This is to further emphasize that objects like mobile handsets can be important in determining the cause and manner of death. The available evidence at the site of incident should be explored meticulously in order to arrive at a proper conclusion.
  11. Leong YH, Ariff AM, Khan HRM, Rani NAA, Majid MIA
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2018 May;56:16-20.
    PMID: 29525581 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2018.03.007
    This study analyses the incidences and patterns of paraquat poisoning from calls received at the Malaysia National Poison Centre (NPC) since 2004 following the ban of the herbicide (2004-2006) and subsequent restriction up to year 2015. Related reported cases to the centre over twelve years (2004-2015) were retrieved and studied in respect to socio-demographic characteristics, mode and type of poisonings, exposure routes and location of incident. Ages of poisoned victims range from 10 months old to 98 years with males being intoxicated more frequently than females (ratio male to female = 2.7). The age group mainly involved in the poisoning was 20-39 years. The most common mode was intentional (62.8%) followed by unintentional (36.9%). Among the 1232 reported cases, suicidal poisoning was the highest (57.2%); accidental poisoning (30.8%) and occupational poisoning (3.3%). The findings showed an upward trend of suicidal poisoning over the years, clearly emphasizing the need for more stringent and effective enforcement to ensure the safe use of paraquat.
  12. Murty OP
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2008 Feb;15(2):96-100.
    PMID: 18206825 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2007.01.005
    In this article, five cases with pearls in penile skin are discussed. These cases were viewed from multiple angles as number, colour, position of pearls, socio-economic status, occupation, sexual behaviour, and the background of the individuals. The number of pearls varied from one to five in these cases. The penile skin examination revealed old healed scar marks indicating that probably some had even more pearls. Three persons were directly or indirectly associated with drugs. One of the victim was HIV positive. Two of the cases were of homicide; one died in police custody; one died due to ischemic heart disease; and one had died in accident. The article also discusses the common beliefs behind this practice with review of the literature.
  13. Murty OP
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2009 Jul;16(5):290-6.
    PMID: 19481715 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.12.020
    Domestic maid violence is an assault and coercive behaviour, which mainly includes physical, psychological and at times sexual too, by employer or household members of employer against a person hired as a domestic help. Maid abuse is well known but poorly documented in scientific literature. This is an important global issue. In this article, two illustrated cases of maid abuse are discussed. Their employers allegedly subjected both the victims to physical and psychological trauma. The physical examination of the victims showed poor state of clothing, nutrition, and presence of injuries of different duration. The bruises were irregular to patterned, and were inflicted by beating. Both cases had eczematous contact dermatitis over palms and soles, paronechia, and sub-ungal fungal infection due to unprotected working in wet conditions. In both cases, external ears were deformed like cauliflowers due to repeated trauma. All cases had multiple injuries of varying duration. In this paper, medico-legal and social issues related to maid abuse are also discussed in detail. A possible solution to minimise maid abuse is also suggested. This paper highlights and document maid abuse.
  14. Murty OP
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2009 Apr;16(3):162-7.
    PMID: 19239970 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.009
    A case is presented of a fatal environmental accidental injuries of lightning. A pedestrian was struck by lightning. The macroscopic and microscopic lightning injuries are reviewed.
  15. George R, Nora Afandi NS, Zainal Abidin SN, Binti Ishak NI, Soe HH, Ismail AR
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2016 Apr;39:156-60.
    PMID: 26896666 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.01.021
    We assessed the resemblance of lip print patterns between parents and biological offspring in families of 31 Malay students as well as the distribution of different types of lip print in the study group. Only a few studies have successfully established the inheritance pattern of lip prints. Such studies can be population specific and need to be conducted in various populations. No such study have been conducted in Malay population in Malaysia, according to our knowledge. Present study was carried out to ascertain whether there is any inherence pattern in lip prints and thereby to investigate the potential role of lip prints in personal identification. We found 58.06% resemblance of lip print patterns between the parents and their biological offspring in our study. The influence of heredity in lip print pattern is still a new concept and there is lack of concrete evidence. The data from our study shows that there is potential influence of inheritance in the lip print patterns among the family members. Further researches involving larger samples size are suggested to derive more reliable and accurate results. The most common lip print pattern among the study group is type I (29.84%) followed by type II (23.12%), type III (22.45%), type I' (13.44%), type IV (9.54%) and type V (1.61%). Racial variations in lip print patterns and their prevalence may serve as an aid in forensic identification and crime scene investigation. The results of this pilot study will help in establishing guidelines for future researches on lip print analysis in Malaysia.
  16. Kumar V
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2007 Jan;14(1):35-8.
    PMID: 16530454
    Death by hanging is believed to be a painless method of committing suicide. In most cases the noose has a knot and on this basis only it can be labeled as atypical or typical hanging. A 35 year Chinese man committed suicide by hanging with a ligature material made of electric wire where there was no knot present on the noose.
  17. Mohd Nor F, Das S
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2012 Jan;19(1):42-5.
    PMID: 22152448 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2011.07.008
    We present a case of skeletonised human remains. In the present case report, a body was exhumed from the ground above a cemetery. On exhumation, the body was partially-skeletonised with adipocere formation on the upper part of the body. Autopsy of the body showed two bullets in the right thigh muscle and lumbar vertebrae between L4 and L5. Postmortem changes and destruction of soft tissue made it impossible to determine direction of fire through the body, even in a careful complete autopsy.
  18. Ramli R, Oxley J, Noor FM, Abdullah NK, Mahmood MS, Tajuddin AK, et al.
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2014 Aug;26:39-45.
    PMID: 25066171 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2014.06.007
    Motorcycle fatalities constitute the majority of road traffic deaths in Malaysia. The aims of this study were to describe the pattern of fatal injuries among Klang Valley fatal motorcyclists and to describe the factors associated with fatal (vs non-fatal) injuries.
  19. Kumar V, Mohanty MK, Kanth S
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2007 Jan;14(1):3-6.
    PMID: 17046310
    The purpose of this study was to record and evaluate the causes and the magnitude of the fatal burn injuries retrospectively. An analysis of autopsy records revealed 19.4% cases of burn injuries amongst the total autopsies done over 10years period (1993-2002) in the mortuary of the department of Forensic Medicine of Kasturba medical College, Manipal. The majority of deaths (78.5%) occurred between 11 and 40years of age group with preponderance of females (74.8%). The flame burns were seen in 94.1% of the victims followed by scalds and electrical burns in 2.8% and 2.5% cases, respectively. The majority of burn incidents were accidental (75.8%) in nature followed by suicidal (11.5%) and homicidal (3.1%) deaths. The percentage of burn (TBSA) over 40% were observed in most of the cases (92.5%). The majority of deaths occurred within a week (69.87%) and most the victims died because of septicemia (50.9%).
  20. Zulkifly NR, Wahab RA, Layang E, Ismail D, Desa WNSM, Hisham S, et al.
    J Forensic Leg Med, 2018 Jan;53:35-45.
    PMID: 29149652 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2017.10.011
    Handprints and dismembered hands are commonly found during crime scene investigations and disaster victim identifications, respectively. It has been indicated that the accuracy of handprint and hand measurements for estimating stature maybe population specific. Since Iban is the largest ethnic population in Sarawak, Malaysia and because the application of anthropometry of hand and handprint within this population as well as other populations within the Southeast Asian countries remain unreported, this present study that investigated the reliability and accuracy of these two anthropometric aspects acquires forensic significance. Upon measuring the height, 21 measurements were recorded on each hand and the corresponding handprint of 50 male and 52 female consented adult Iban subjects. Using univariate statistics as well as simple and multiple regression analyses, interpretation of the measurements examined here was attempted. Results revealed that lengths of hand and handprint are the more reliable traits for estimating stature in both the male and female Iban subjects (p 
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