A retrospective analysis of data from forensic toxicology at the Academy of Forensic Science in 2017

Abstract

Knowing the specific pattern of forensic toxicology cases in a region is vital to help the local government establish an effective prevention and treatment system; currently, there have been no published reports investigating various types of forensic toxicology cases based on a large autopsy series and city size. The data in this study were obtained from records kept at the Academy of Forensic Science (AFS) between February 2017 and December 2017, and the cases were mainly from the Public Security Organs People’s Police in Shanghai, China. There were 299 autopsies; the leading cause of death was traffic accidents (37.1%), and the manners of death were mainly accidental (54.8%). From a total of 9083 cases, 1992 involved traffic accidents, 6787 were drug abuse, 269 were poisonings, and 35 were drug-facilitated sexual assaults (DFSAs). We also investigated the pattern of unnatural deaths and the alcohol-positive (with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) ≥0.20 mg/ml) rate among the various cases. The BAC ranged from 0.08 to 7.24 mg/ml in traffic cases, and the mean BAC of the total alcohol-positive drivers was 1.44 mg/ml. It was found that 80.8% of the drivers involved had a BAC ≥ 0.20 mg/ml (limit of civil offense), and 72.8% had a BAC ≥ 0.80 mg/ml (limit of criminal offense). Among the drug abuse cases, there were 4073 cases (60.0%) that were positive for at least one euphoriant; the most frequently abused drug group was amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS). Poisonings by natural toxins (such as scopolamine and tetrodotoxin) account for a significant portion of accidental deaths. Pesticide poisoning was also constituted a large portion, and organophosphorus were the cause of the majority of those cases. Suicide by pesticide showed the highest frequency in the present study. Among the 35 DFSA cases, dexmedetomidine was frequently detected in our study, which has rarely been reported previously in DFSA cases.