Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Intracranial aneurysms are an important cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage producing sudden death in the adult population. Those founds in the vertebrobasilar system present a frequency of 11.5 per one hundred thousand individuals per year and those restricted to the basilar artery are more rare. We present the case of rupture of a saccular, congenital aneurysm of the basilar artery; found in autopsy as the cause of death of a 51-year-old woman, with no medical history, who was found dead at home. From the medica-legal point of view, this report is aimed at themedical examiner, about the importance of the suspicion of vascular etiology in these autopsies with absence of trauma in the external examination and presence of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Because of its infrequent location, the aneurysms located in the basilar artery, it is necessary to have a series of factors for its adequate approach.

The study of aneurysms is of special interest in the medical sciences, particularly in the forensic field because it is considered a cause of sudden death. Aneurysms are defined as an abnormal dilation in the circumferential wall of a blood vessel or the wall of the heart and are classified as true aneurysms and false aneurysms (pseudoaneurysms). The true aneurysms are classified as succiform and fusiform. They appear according to their pathogenesis as products of promoter and trigger factors that alter the shape and function of the vascular wall and its weakening, atherosclerotic and hypertensive processes, alterations of the connective tissue and the extracellular matrix of the vascular wall and infections. They can appear in different body regions; although they are more frequent in the aorta. In the abdomen they are associated with atherosclerosis; in the thorax to hypertension and in the brain as multifactorial including the congenital causes. The diagnosis can be very difficult and this is based on the clinical presentation and various imaging studies such as contrast arteriography, ultrasound, computed tomography and magnetic resonance. The treatment of arterial aneurysms has been limited to surgical intervention.

Femenina de 36 años de edad, obesa, con cuadro de inicio súbito de dolor abdominal e irradiación a región lumbar de aproximadamente cuatro horas de evolución, acompañado de episodios de lipotimias, pérdida de la consciencia y muerte. La autopsia reveló aneurisma ateroesclerótico sacular, roto en la arteria iliaca izquierda (fotos insertas; flechas) y hematoma retroperitoneal. El aneurisma se define como una dilatación anormal localizada de un vaso sanguíneo. Los aneurismas de la arteria iliaca son muy poco frecuentes, con una incidencia de 0.03 % en series de autopsias, el 80 % son causados por ateroesclerosis y debido a su localización son de difícil diagnóstico 1.

La Genética Forense es una especialidad de la genética que actualmente ocupa un lugar preferencial por su gran utilidad para identificar personas, esclarecer casos criminalísticos o de filiación genética, sobre todo en casos en los que no se cuenta con muestras adecuadamente conservadas; por ejemplo, en la identificación de restos óseos. En Honduras la genética forense se viene utilizando desde el año 2002, cuando la Dirección de Medicina Forense inauguró su laboratorio de Genética Forense; y hoy ya es una herramienta plenamente consolidada y ampliamente utilizada.

This article exposes the basic concepts of DNA testing in the forensic context. We describe some historical aspects of how these genetic tests were carried out at the beginning, the STR markers analyzed to obtain DNA profiles, the equipment and the commercially available human identification kits that are most used in forensic genetics laboratories. To conclude this review, we describe how the interpretation process of genetic profiles is begun.

Justification: The autopsy is a gold standard to determine the manner of death, providing crucial information that aids to the clinical, epidemiological and pathophysiological aspects of diseases with high death rate. The pathologic data obtained from autopsies must agree with the diagnostics and facilitate effective therapies. Being a new disease with unprecedented implications for humanity, SARS-CoV-2 infection has generated multiple scientific works to understand it from different points of view. Objective: The purposes of the review were: to analyze the available literature on autopsies, to identify the main pathological findings reported and to determine the technical conditions under which these procedures were performed. Methodology: Bibliographic search engines (PubMed, Google Scholar, Dialnet, Scielo) were utilized, using the words Autopsy, Postmortem and COVID-19, to locate the literature on autopsies of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results: We obtained 16 scientific articles that fulfilled our search criteria. In seven, 83 autopsies were reported from 54 men and 16 women, with an average age of 60.91 years. Pathology analysis focused especially on the lungs, wich were macroscopically heavy for edema and congestion. Microscopically, there was diffuse alveolar damage (hyaline or organizational membranes with angiogenesis and microthrombi) and lymphocytic infiltration. Were  also  analyzed  in   18   autopsies other organs such as heart, liver, kidney and spleen. Conclusion: Despite the increase in research reports on SARS-CoV-2 disease, autopsy-based studies are still scarce and limited. An increase in the number of autopsies performed on those who died from COVID-19 would provide greater knowledge of the characteristics of the disease, the cause of death, its extension and the effects of treatment.

Background: The Short Tandem Repeats are distributed throughout the human genome, those located in the autosomal chromosomes and Y chromosome have been widely used in forensic genetics laboratories due to their characteristics and hereditary patterns. Objectives: In order to characterize and determine forensic parameters of STR sequences of the X chromosome (DXS8378, DXS9902, DXS7132, DXS9898, DXS6809, DXS6789, DXS7133, GATA172D05, GATA31E08 and DXS7423) in the Zulia State population. Methodology: 108 individuals (130 X chromosomes) were selected and their DNA was amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction technique. The amplified fragments were separated by capillary electrophoresis and the alleles were assigned by comparison with the allelic ladder. Results: The average diversity was 0.7252, the Polymorphics Information Content proved to be greater than 0.5 in all the X-STRs and the cumulative discrimination power was 0.99999997 in women and 0.99999816 in men. Conclusions: The obtained data showed that the analyzed X-STRs are sufficiently informative as to be used in cases of complex biological links and human identification.

The constant improvement in the development and operation of the laboratories is a maxim that must be present. In this sense, at least in the last decade, forensic laboratories are incorporating into their management system innovations that incorporate any other type of companies or organizations such as critical aspects of personnel, through standards on occupational health and safety , environmental issues given the growing concern in society about the environmental risk of quality, in order to externalize a highly positive image and obtain this form of competitive advantages over other types of companies operating in the same branch or sector. This last aspect was especially significant for the trials that on different scientific branches are carried out by forensic laboratories, since they contribute to strengthening the entire sequential analytical process followed and consequently the conclusions reached in the analysis performed.