Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

JAMA Pediatr 2022 Jun 27. Epub 2022 Jun 27.

Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Curr Med Mycol 2021 Dec;7(4):38-42

Invasive Fungi Research Center, Communicable Diseases Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.

Background And Purpose: spp. is a saprophytic fungus that may cause invasive pulmonary infection due to the aspiration of contaminated water in both immunosuppressed and immunocompetent hosts.

Case Report: Herein, we report a fatal case of pulmonary infection caused by species associated with a car crash and near-drowning in a sewage canal. Read More

Pediatr Emerg Med Pract 2022 06 15;19(6 Suppl):1-46. Epub 2022 Jun 15.

Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Clinician Educator), Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA; Attending physician, Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

Drowning and submersion injuries are highly prevalent, yet preventable, causes of pediatric mortality and morbidity. Prehospital care should focus on restoring normal ventilation and circulation as quickly as possible to limit the extent of hypoxic insult. Diagnostic testing for symptomatic patients may include blood glucose level, arterial blood gas level, complete blood count, electrolyte levels, chest radiography, and cardiorespiratory monitoring with pulse oximetry and a rhythm strip. Read More

Diving Hyperb Med 2022 Jun;52(2):108-118

Australasian Diving Safety Foundation, Canterbury, Victoria, Australia.

Introduction: This study examined all known diving-related fatalities in Queensland, Australia, from 2000 to 2019 to determine likely causes and potential countermeasures.

Methods: Data were extracted from the Australasian Diving Safety Foundation fatality database, including previously published reports. The National Coronial Information System was searched to identify diving-related deaths in Queensland for 2014-2019 and data were extracted, analysed, and combined with previously published data covering the period 2000-2013. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):119-126

Hainan Province Tropical Forensic Engineering Research Center, Department of Forensic Medicine of Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.

Objectives: To examine the effect of improving diatom DNA extraction by glass bead - vortex oscillation method.

Methods: The DNeasy PowerSoil Pro kit was used as control, two plant DNA extraction kits with different principles (New Plant genomic DNA extraction kit and Plant DNA Isolation kit) and one whole blood DNA extraction kit (whole blood genomic DNA extraction kit) were selected to extract diatom DNA from lung tissue and water sample of the same drowning case. The combination of mass ratio of glass beads with different sizes and vortex oscillation time was designed, and the optimal DNA extraction conditions were selected with the addition of glass beads oscillation. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):114-118

Huadu District Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, Guangzhou 510800, China.

Objectives: To compare the application effect of microwave digestion - vacuum filtration - automated scanning electron microscopy (MD-VF-Auto SEM) method and plankton gene multiplex PCR system in the diagnosis of drowning.

Methods: Lung, liver and kidney tissue of 10 non-drowning cases and 50 drowning cases were prepared for further MD-VF-Auto SEM method analysis and plankton gene multiplex PCR system analysis. The positive detection rate of the two methods in each tissue was calculated. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):110-113

Guangzhou Forensic Science Institute & Key Laboratory of Forensic Pathology, Ministry of Public Security, Guangzhou 510442, China.

Objectives: To retrospectively analyze diatom test cases of corpses in water and discuss the value of quantitative analysis of diatoms in the diagnosis of drowning.

Methods: A total of 490 cases of water-related death were collected. They were divided into drowning group and postmortem immersion group according to the cause of death. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):98-109

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China.

Objectives: To explore the research hotspots and development trends of the field of forensic drowning from 1991 to 2020 by bibliometrics methods.

Methods: Based on Web of Science, CNKI database, Wanfang Data knowledge service platform, python 3.9. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):92-97

Institute of Forensic Science, Shandong Provincial Public Security Bureau, Jinan 250001, China.

Objectives: To study the annual variation of diatoms in Zhangweixin River, to provide theoretical support by using diatom examination to estimate the time and place of the corpse entering water, and to establish a diatom database.

Methods: Samples were taken from 4 sampling sites in Decheng section of Zhangweixin River for 12 consecutive months. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis was performed on the species and content of diatom samples. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):86-91

Jining Medical University, Jining 272067, Shandong Province, China.

Objectives: To establish a diatom database by analyzing the quatity, species distribution and differences of diatom in water samples of the whole navigable sections of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, to provide a reference for the inference of the drowning site.

Methods: Water samples were collected at 22 sites in the navigable sections of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Jining section to Yangzhou Section), and the diatoms at each site were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by using graphite digestion-scanning electron microscopy.

Results: Sampling site T (Laohuaijiang River Line, Gaoyou City, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province) had the highest number of diatoms, while sampling site O (Siyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province) had the lowest number of diatoms, with a large gap of 68 times. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):82-85

Marine Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, Guangzhou 510235, China.

Objectives: To study the relationship between water temperature and floating time of aquatic cadavers, providing a reference for more precise positioning and searching for floating corpses.

Methods: The floating model of guinea pig after drowning at 17-30 ℃ was established, and the floating times of carcasses were recorded. The collected data of 32 floating corpse cases in the Pearl River were sorted out and analyzed according to the floating time of corpses corresponding to each degree of water temperature. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):77-81

Guangzhou Forensic Science Institute & Key Laboratory of Forensic Pathology, Ministry of Public Security, Guangzhou 510442, China.

Objectives: To study the effects of temperature and time for diatoms digestion and find out suitable digestive temperature and time.

Methods: Eighty pieces of liver tissues were collected, each piece of tissue was 2 g, and 2 mL Pearl River water was added to each piece of tissue. The digestion temperature was set at 100 ℃, 120 ℃, 140 ℃, 160 ℃, 180 ℃ and the digestion time was set at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 min. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):71-76

Guangdong Province Translational Forensic Medicine Engineering Technology Research Center, Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510000, China.

Objectives: To study the phenomenon of pulmonary hypostasis in corpses of various causes of death, and to explore the potential value of this phenomenon in assisting forensic pathological diagnosis of drowning.

Methods: A total of 235 cases with clear cause of death through systematic autopsy were collected from January 2011 to June 2021 in Guangzhou. According to the location of body discovery, the cases were divided into the water body group (97 cases) and the nonwater body group (138 cases), and the water body group was further divided into the water drowning group (90 cases) and the water nondrowning group (7 cases). Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):67-70

Guangzhou Forensic Science Institute & Key Laboratory of Forensic Pathology, Ministry of Public Security, Guangzhou 510442, China.

Objectives: To study whether diatoms can enter the body through the lymphatic system of the digestive tract.

Methods: Twenty experimental rabbits were divided into the test group and the control group randomly, and intragastric administration was performed with 20 mL water sample from the Pearl River and 20 mL ultrapure water, respectively. After 30 min, lymph, lungs, livers and kidneys were extracted for the diatom test. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):59-66

Center of Medico-legal Investigation, School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, China.

Objectives: The metabolomics technique of LC-MS/MS combined with data analysis was used to detect changes and differences in metabolic profiles in the vitreous humor of early rat carcasses found in water, and to explore the feasibility of its use for early postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) estimation and the cause of death determination.

Methods: The experimental model was established in natural lake water with 100 SD rats were randomly divided into a drowning group (=50) and a postmortem (CO suffocation) immediately submersion group (=50). Vitreous humor was extracted from 10 rats in each group at 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 h postmortem for metabolomics analyses, of which 8 were used as the training set to build the model, and 2 were used as test set. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):53-58

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China.

Objectives: To explore the application value of virtual autopsy to obtain key evidence information on drowned corpses and its application value of virtual autopsy in the diagnosis of drowning.

Methods: In this study, 7 corpses were selected as the research objects. The image data of corpses were collected by computed tomography (CT) before conventional autopsy. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):46-52

Department of Forensic Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211126, China.

Objectives: To construct a YOLOv3-based model for diatom identification in scanning electron microscope images, explore the application performance in practical cases and discuss the advantages of this model.

Methods: A total of 25 000 scanning electron microscopy images were collected at 1 500× as an initial image set, and input into the YOLOv3 network to train the identification model after experts' annotation and image processing. Diatom scanning electron microscopy images of lung, liver and kidney tissues taken from 8 drowning cases were identified by this model under the threshold of 0. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):40-45

Department of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.

Objectives: To explore the application values of diatom artificial intelligence (AI) search system in the diagnosis of drowning.

Methods: The liver and kidney tissues of 12 drowned corpses were taken and were performed with the diatom test, the view images were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Diatom detection and forensic expert manual identification were carried out under the thresholds of 0. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):31-39

School of Forensic Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China.

Objectives: To select four algorithms with relatively balanced complexity and accuracy among deep learning image classification algorithms for automatic diatom recognition, and to explore the most suitable classification algorithm for diatom recognition to provide data reference for automatic diatom testing research in forensic medicine.

Methods: The "diatom" and "background" small sample size data set (20 000 images) of digestive fluid smear of corpse lung tissue in water were built to train, validate and test four convolutional neural network (CNN) models, including VGG16, ResNet50, InceptionV3 and Inception-ResNet-V2. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) of subjects and confusion matrixes were drawn, recall rate, precision rate, specificity, accuracy rate and 1 score were calculated, and the performance of each model was systematically evaluated. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):20-30

Department of Forensic Medicine of Hainan Medical University, Academician Workstation of Hainan Province (Tropical Forensic Medicine), Hainan Province Tropical Forensic Engineering Research Center, Center of Forensic Science, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.

Diatom detection is an important method for identifying drowning and throwing corpses after death and inferring the drowning sites in forensic examination of corpses in water. In recent years,high-throughput sequencing technology has achieved rapid development and has been widely used in research related to diatom taxonomic investigations. This paper reviews the research status and prospects of high-throughput sequencing technology and its application in forensic diatom detection. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):14-19

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai 200063, China.

Diatom test is the main laboratory test method in the diagnosis of drowning in forensic medicine. It plays an important role in differentiating the antemortem drowning from the postmortem drowning and inferring drowning site. Artificial intelligence (AI) automatic diatom test is a technological innovation in forensic drowning diagnosis which is based on morphological characteristics of diatom, the application of AI algorithm to automatic identification and classification of diatom in tissues and organs. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 Feb;38(1):3-13

Hebei Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, College of Forensic Medicine, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050011, China.

Drowning is the death caused by asphyxiation due to fluid blocking the airway. In the practice of forensic medicine, it is the key to determine whether the corpse was drowned or entered the water after death. At the same time, the drowning site inference and postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) play an important role in the investigating the identity of the deceased, narrowing the investigation scope, and solving the case. Read More

Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 2022 02;38(1):1-2

Guangzhou Forensic Science Institute & Key Laboratory of Forensic Pathology, Ministry of Public Security, Guangzhou 510442, China.

Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 2022 Jun;43(6):871-877

Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

To analyze the level and changing trend of significant injury-caused deaths in the Chinese population from 2010 to 2019 and provide evidence for related intervention. Data on notable injury-caused deaths in areas under National Disease Surveillance Programs were collected from 2010 to 2019. Crude and standardized mortality rates of four significant injuries were calculated to describe the status of injury-caused deaths. Read More

J Forensic Leg Med 2022 Jun 8;90:102389. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Department of Forensic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan; Education and Research Center of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan. Electronic address:

Objective: The diagnosis of drowning is an important issue in forensic investigations. Moreover, discriminating between seawater and freshwater drowning is crucial to identify where the drowning occurred. The present study aimed to investigate electrolyte concentrations in pleural fluid in decomposed bodies in late postmortem intervals and derive cut-off values for the diagnosis of seawater and freshwater drowning. Read More

Int J Public Health 2022 2;67:1604882. Epub 2022 Jun 2.

State Key Laboratory of Hydrology Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Yangtze Institute for Conservation and Development, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.

To assess the relationship between regional climatic factors and child drowning in China. Provincial age-specific drowning rate, climatic and income data were collected. We conducted a geographically weighted regression to evaluate the association between drowning and climatic factors. Read More

Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 2022 Jun;54(3):498-504

Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.

Objective: To analyze the mortality of injuries among children and adolescents aged 5 to 24 in China from 1990 to 2019, and to provide the theoretical basis for the formulation of policies related to injury prevention.

Methods: The mortality data of children and adolescents aged 5 to 24 years in China between 1990 and 2019 were obtained from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019, and the change in mortality between 1990 and 2019 was described. Age-period-cohort analysis was utilized to determine the age effect, period effect and cohort effect for road injuries, drowning and self-harm. Read More

Pediatr Emerg Care 2022 Jun 10. Epub 2022 Jun 10.

From the Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Objectives: Previous studies have shown that educational programs in conjunction with provision of free or low-cost safety equipment increases the likelihood of parents changing behaviors at home. This project surveyed caregivers in the pediatric emergency department (ED) about safety behaviors before and after provision of education and safety equipment related to medication storage, firearm storage, and drowning.

Methods: A convenience sample of families presenting to the ED for any complaint with a child of any age were approached for participation in this feasibility study. Read More

J Travel Med 2022 Jun 11. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Background: Annual global travel reached an all-time high of 1.4 billion international tourist visits in 2019. It is estimated that injury accounts for close to 25% of deaths in travelers, most of which are theoretically preventable. Read More