title: Tongue protrusion as an indicator of vital burning.
abstract: In the forensic assessment of burned bodies, the question of whether the victim was exposed to the fire before or after death is of crucial importance. Several external signs have been used in the past to indicate heat exposure prior to the death of the victim but these did not include tongue protrusion. The internal signs of heat exposure are generally regarded as much more important than those observed externally. No one factor has been found to be totally reliable. This study found a statistically significant dependence between tongue protrusion and presence of soot in the respiratory tract and stomach, the latter being a good indicator of vital burning. The results of this study confirm that tongue protrusion can be used as an additional indicator of vital burning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Pretoria, P.O. Box 1266, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa, bernitz@iafrica.com.
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bernitz
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: van Staden
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Cronjé
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sutherland
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology*; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000473:pathology; D053260:Soot; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology; D014059:Tongue / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D053260:Soot; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin