title: Systematic study on STR profiling on blood and saliva traces after visualization of fingerprint marks.
abstract: This paper describes a systematic study of the influence of optical, physical, and chemical methods used for fingerprint enhancement on subsequent DNA analysis of biological stains. Latent fingerprints as well as fingerprints in contact with blood and saliva on different surfaces were treated with dactyloscopic methods. As a general finding, subsequent STR profiling of the blood/saliva traces led to good results after all the enhancement methods included in this study. Concerning blood enhancement procedures, the airbrush technique showed deleterious effects on subsequent STR analysis in some cases. We therefore recommend the implementation of the layer technique, as it brings advantages for fingerprint enhancement as well. It could also be shown that, as can be necessary in practical casework, two enhancement methods can be performed on a single stain without having influence on STR profiling. In terms of methodological variety, this paper reflects a comprehensive study performed on STR profiling after fingerprint enhancement methods, including rare methods and variations of techniques, which can be a useful alternative in certain case scenarios.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Muellerstrasse 44, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grubwieser
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thaler
authors.forename: Silvano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Köchl
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Teissl
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rabl
authors.forename: Walther
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parson
mesh_terms: D001801:Blood Stains; D004247:DNA / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012463:Saliva; D013499:Surface Properties; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences
chemical_list: D004247:DNA