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Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) provides significant information with regard to specific forensic questions for the determination of manner and cause of death. After the external examination of a body, PMCT appears to be a valuable tool for imaging-based decision making whether conducting an autopsy is necessary. Within that domain of application, a series of ten cases is presented to qualitatively highlight the current state of the art and remaining problems. PMCT combined with detailed external examination of the body and toxicological tests can satisfactorily answer the leading forensic questions of some cases, like the validation of the victim's identity and the presence of foreign bodies and determine the cause and manner of death. By absence of suspected trauma or third party violence during the scene investigation and the external examination of a corpse, PMCT can add more validity to these assumptions or contradict those revealing unexpected findings. Thus, a conventional medicolegal autopsy can be avoided as all relevant forensic questions are answered, which is also time and cost consuming. However, reliable evaluation of relevant head and cervical trauma, strangulation, infection and sepsis, metabolic disorders, intoxication and neuroreflex deaths keeps evading a purely PMCT-based approach.

In the context of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID), not only common drugs of abuse may have an influence, but also medications with similar mechanisms of action. Simultaneous quantification of a variety of drugs and medications relevant in this context allows faster and more effective analyses. Therefore, multi-analyte approaches have gained more and more popularity in recent years. Usually, calibration curves for such procedures contain a mixture of all analytes, which might lead to mutual interferences. In this study we investigated whether the use of such mixtures leads to reliable results for authentic samples containing only one or two analytes. Five hundred microliters of whole blood were extracted by routine solid-phase extraction (SPE, HCX). Analysis was performed on an ABSciex 3200 QTrap instrument with ESI+ in scheduled MRM mode. The method was fully validated according to international guidelines including selectivity, recovery, matrix effects, accuracy and precision, stabilities, and limit of quantification. The selected SPE provided recoveries >60% for all analytes except 6-monoacetylmorphine (MAM) with coefficients of variation (CV) below 15% or 20% for quality controls (QC) LOW and HIGH, respectively. Ion suppression >30% was found for benzoylecgonine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, MDA, oxycodone, and oxymorphone at QC LOW, however CVs were always below 10% (n = 6 different whole blood samples). Accuracy and precision criteria were fulfilled for all analytes except for MAM. Systematic investigation of accuracy determined for QC MED in a multi-analyte mixture compared to samples containing only single analytes revealed no relevant differences for any analyte, indicating that a multi-analyte calibration is suitable for the presented method. Comparison of approximately 60 samples to a former GC–MS method showed good correlation. The newly validated method was successfully applied to more than 1600 routine samples and 3 proficiency tests.

New psychoactive substances are conquering the drug scene. Police seize different colourful packages with exceptional names. They are declared as ‘bath salts’, ‘plant food’, or ‘research chemical powders’. Little is known about the actual prevalence of these drugs. Reanalysis of hair samples from routine cases concerning the presence of new psychoactive substances or ‘smart drugs’ should provide insight into changing patterns of designer drugs. All hair samples from 2009 and 2010 that originally tested positive for amphetamines or MDMA (N = 325) were reanalyzed for new or smart drugs such as 4-fluoroamphetamine, piperazines (BZP, mCPP and TFMPP), cathinones (4-MMC (mephedrone), methylone, butylone, ethylone, MDPV, methcathinone and cathinone), methylphenidate and ketamine. Hair snippets were extracted using a two-step extraction procedure. The analytes were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (electrospray ionization; multiple-reaction-monitoring mode – information dependent acquisition – enhanced product ion scan). New psychoactive substances were found in 120 cases (37%). Concerning the piperazine drugs, mCPP was positive in 34 (10.5%) cases and TFMPP in one case. Five mCPP cases were also positive for trazodone, an antidepressant which is metabolized to mCPP. In 11 (3%) cases, 4-MMC was detected. Concerning the smart drugs, methylphenidate was found in 16 (5%). Ketamine was found in 45 (14%) cases. 4-Fluoroamphetamine was identified in 12 (4%) cases and methylone in one case.In conclusion, there is a high prevalence of these drugs. Consequently, at least the most common ones (e.g. mCPP, KET, 4-MMC and 4-FA) should be included in screening procedures in clinical and forensic toxicology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

La violence sexualisee est un sujet pertinent dans la pratique medicale quotidienne. Il est impossible de determiner son ampleur effective en raison des cas non recenses.

Sexualisierte Gewalt ist im medizinischen Alltag ein relevantes Thema, ihr tatsachliches Ausmass lasst sich infolge einer anzunehmenden Dunkelziffer nicht bestimmen.

New psychoactive substances are conquering the drug scene. Police seize different colourful packages with exceptional names. They are declared as 'bath salts', 'plant food', or 'research chemical powders'. Little is known about the actual prevalence of these drugs. Reanalysis of hair samples from routine cases concerning the presence of new psychoactive substances or 'smart drugs' should provide insight into changing patterns of designer drugs. All hair samples from 2009 and 2010 that originally tested positive for amphetamines or MDMA (N = 325) were reanalyzed for new or smart drugs such as 4-fluoroamphetamine, piperazines (BZP, mCPP and TFMPP), cathinones (4-MMC (mephedrone), methylone, butylone, ethylone, MDPV, methcathinone and cathinone), methylphenidate and ketamine. Hair snippets were extracted using a two-step extraction procedure. The analytes were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (electrospray ionization; multiple-reaction-monitoring mode - information dependent acquisition - enhanced product ion scan). New psychoactive substances were found in 120 cases (37%). Concerning the piperazine drugs, mCPP was positive in 34 (10.5%) cases and TFMPP in one case. Five mCPP cases were also positive for trazodone, an antidepressant which is metabolized to mCPP. In 11 (3%) cases, 4-MMC was detected. Concerning the smart drugs, methylphenidate was found in 16 (5%). Ketamine was found in 45 (14%) cases. 4-Fluoroamphetamine was identified in 12 (4%) cases and methylone in one case.In conclusion, there is a high prevalence of these drugs. Consequently, at least the most common ones (e.g. mCPP, KET, 4-MMC and 4-FA) should be included in screening procedures in clinical and forensic toxicology.