Faridah Mohd Nor

Planned complex suicide: Self-strangulation and fall from height

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.

Age at death estimation from bone histology in Malaysian males

Estimation of age from microscopic examination of human bone utilizes bone remodeling. This allows 2 regression equation to be determined in a specific population based on the variation in osteon turnover in different populations. The aim of this study was to provide age estimation for Malaysian males. Ground undecalcified cross sections were prepared from long limb bones of 50 deceased males aged between 21 and 78 years. Ten microstructural parameters were measured and subjected to multivariate regression analysis. Results showed that osteon count had the highest correlation with age (R = 0.43), and age was estimated to be within 10.94 years of the true value in 98% of males. Cross validation of the equation on 50 individuals showed close correspondence of true ages with estimated ages. Further studies are needed to validate and expand these results.

Study of sexual dimorphism of Malaysian crania: an important step in identification of the skeletal remains

Sex determination is one of the main steps in the identification of human skeletal remains. It constitutes an initial step in personal identification from the skeletal remains. The aim of the present study was to provide the population-specific sex discriminating osteometric standards to aid human identification. The present study was conducted on 87 (174 sides) slices of crania using postmortem computed tomography in 45 males and 42 females, aged between 18 and 75 years. About 22 parameters of crania were measured using Osirix software 3-D Volume Rendering. Results showed that all parameters were significantly higher in males than in females except for orbital height of the left eye by independent t test (P<0.01). By discriminant analysis, the classification accuracy was 85.1%, and by regression, the classification accuracy ranged from 78.2% to 86.2%. In conclusion, cranium can be used to distinguish between males and females in the Malaysian population. The results of the present study can be used as a forensic tool for identification of unknown crania.

Gunshot wound in skeletonised human remains with partial adipocere formation.

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.

Stature estimation by CT scan images of metacarpal measurements in Malaysian Malay Males

Four basic biological profile were useful for human identification including stature. The aim is to develop regressions for stature using ten metacarpals in Malay males. The samples were retrieved from Hospital Kuala Lumpur from PMCT images, which comprised 200 males from 20 to 53 years old. The parameters were lengths often metacarpals measured by Osirix, in which strong correlations with stature were evident. Single linear regressions were developed with good accuracy, where both true and estimated statures showed close values by paired t-test. It is concluded that regression equations are useful to estimate stature in Malay males.

Fatal penetrating neck injury due to defective airbag inflator

We present a case of a fatal motor vehicle collision of a 22-year-old car driver, who died at the scene after losing control of his car, and subsequently collided with a tree by the roadside. The subsequent autopsy revealed penetrating injuries on the neck, severing the larynx, carotid artery, jugular vein and fracturing the cervical vertebrae. Internal examination showed the offending material to be a semi-cylindrical metal fragment, which had lodged within the paravertebral muscle. Examination of the car with the authorities found that the metal fragment originated from a defective airbag booster cannister, which shattered upon deployment.

Another cause of cardiac tamponade: ruptured coronary artery aneurysm

BackgroundCoronary artery aneurysm can be defined as an abnormal dilatation of the coronaries. In recent years, the disease has been frequently encountered during surgical procedures such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA).Case presentationWe reported a case of cardiac tamponade due to spontaneous rupture of coronary artery aneurysm in a 53-year-old Chinese man, who had collapsed and died at home after returning from work. Autopsy revealed a cardiac tamponade with ruptured aneurysm of the left circumflex artery.ConclusionThis case highlights the need to consider ruptured coronary aneurysm as a differential diagnosis when cardiac tamponade is encountered during autopsy.

Predictive role of hand and foot dimensions for stature estimation in the Malaysian population

ABSTRACT Estimation of stature plays a significant role in establishing personal identity in forensic anthropology. The objective is to derive specific population regression equations to estimate stature from hand and foot measurements in the Malaysian population. A prospective cross-sectional study was done with 400 staffs and students, who were randomly chosen from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) and ranged from 19 to 60 years old. The subjects comprised 200 males and 200 females (257 Malay, 112 Chinese and 31 Indian). Eleven parameters, such as hand length 1, hand length 2, hand length 3, hand length 4, hand length 5, hand length, palm length, hand breadth, maximum hand breadth, foot breadth and foot length were measured twice by measuring tape and Vernier callipers, and were averaged. Results revealed that the parameters exhibited a significant difference between sexes and ethnic groups (p < 0.05). The relative TEM was 0.7 and 1.37% for intra- and inter-observational analyses, respectively, which were acceptable for measurement accuracy. Paired t-tests showed close approximation between estimated and true stature. Thus, the regressions could be used for stature estimation in the Malaysian population. Further study is needed to evaluate and validate the results for future use.

Stature Estimation from Lower Limb Anthropometry using Linear Regression Analysis: A Study on the Malaysian Population

INTRODUCTION Stature is one of the characteristics that could be used to identify human, besides age, sex and racial affiliation. This is useful when the body found is either dismembered, mutilated or even decomposed, and helps in narrowing down the missing persons identity. AIM The main aim of the present study was to construct regression functions for stature estimation by using lower limb bones in the Malaysian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS The sample comprised 87 adult individuals (81 males, 6 females) aged between 20 to 79 years. The parameters such as thigh length, lower leg length, leg length, foot length, foot height and foot breadth were measured. They were measured by a ruler and measuring tape. Statistical analysis involved independent t-test to analyse the difference between lower limbs in male and female. The Pearsons correlation test was used to analyse correlations between lower limb parameters and stature, and the linear regressions were used to form equations. The paired t-test was used to compare between actual stature and estimated stature by using the equations formed. RESULTS Using independent t-test, there was a significant difference (p< 0.05) in the measurement between males and females with regard to leg length, thigh length, lower leg length, foot length and foot breadth. The thigh length, leg length and foot length were observed to have strong correlations with stature with p= 0.75, p= 0.81 and p= 0.69, respectively. Linear regressions were formulated for stature estimation. Paired t-test showed no significant difference between actual stature and estimated stature. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that regression functions can be used to estimate stature to identify skeletal remains in the Malaysia population.

Automated haversian canal detection for histological sex determination

Human bones can provide vital information about the person it belonged to, using different analytical methods. Histomorphological method can use only fragments of bone to estimate age and sex. Different researches have been conducted using these methods in which researchers have selected microstructural parameters according to their requirement. This paper presents automated haversian canal detection from bone sample image. This detection is part of a developing system for automated sex determination system. This sex determination system can identify sex from human bone sample by using microstructural image processing. The system is divided into two parts. In first part bone samples are selected, manually analyzed and differences in microstructural parameters in males and females are observed. While in second part these observations are used to design computer aided automation system. Lastly this paper concludes system while giving its importance in multiple aspects.