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Bodies found immersed in water can pose difficulties to the investigating authorities. Pathologists may be assisted with the diagnosis by the use of tests such as the analysis for diatoms or the levels of strontium in the blood, although there is a recognised level of uncertainty associated with these tests. Recent work from Japan has shown that using molecular approaches, most recently real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays with TaqMan probes for bacterioplankton, it is possible to undertake rapid, less laborious, high throughput tests to differentiate freshwater from marine bacterioplankton and in doing so provide a molecular diagnostic test to assist in the diagnosis of drowning. We report the experiences of a United Kingdom forensic pathology unit in the use of this PCR based system for the diagnosis of drowning. We applied this technique to 20 adult and child cadavers from 4 bath, 12 freshwater, 2 brackish and 2 salt water scenes both from within the United Kingdom and abroad. Drowning was concluded to be the cause of death in 16 of these 20 cases and the PCR method supported this conclusion in 12 of these 16 cases. The PCR did not provide evidence of drowning in the four cases where death was from other causes. We illustrate that this PCR method provides a rapid diagnostic supportive test for the diagnosis of drowning that can be applied to United Kingdom autopsy practice., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: While several research groups champion the potential for postmortem CT (PMCT) to replace the invasive postmortem (PM), many questions still remain., Aims: Perhaps the two most important questions are whether PMCT can provide the same level of information as an invasive PM, and arguably more importantly, can it meet the needs of the end users of the PM report. Through a comparative analysis of invasive post-mortem and CT findings and a questionnaire based qualitative thematic analysis, the authors have sought to answer these questions., Results and Conclusion: Here, the authors show that PMCT is good at providing accurate causes of death and that the interpretation of cases is not significantly altered by the absence of histology. The authors show that in straightforward trauma deaths such as road traffic incidents, there exists the potential for the replacement of the invasive PM by PMCT examination. However, as yet, PMCT cannot provide all of the information that is expected by the criminal justice system in complex forensic cases.

Non-accidental head injury, be it shaking, impact(s) or a combination of the two, is characterised by subdural and/or subarachnoid haemorrhages with retinal haemorrhages, but minimal or absent external cranio-facial trauma. The classical assault scenario depicts the infant being gripped around the head, face, chest and abdomen and shaken or being gripped by a limb and swung. This gripping might be expected to leave physical evidence in the form of bruising. A study was undertaken to establish the prevalence, distribution and pathological association of external bruising in 24 cases of fatal non-accidental head injury in children. At autopsy, 17 cases had new external bruises, 15 old external bruises and 13, a combination of both. However, seven (29%) cases showed no fresh external bruising and five (21%) showed no external bruising at all. Thus, external bruising may be absent in children with fatal intracranial injury. The face was shown to be the commonest site of bruising followed by the forehead and buttocks. Limb, chest and abdominal bruising were found to be uncommon. Retinal haemorrhages were confirmed in 23 (96%) cases. It is hypothesised that bruising, when present, may be a result of abuse in the form of punches and slaps rather than due to gripping during the assault. We discuss why gripping does not necessarily result in external bruising.