title: From Death to Death Certificate: What do the Dead say?
abstract: This is an overview of medicolegal death investigation and death certification. Postmortem toxicological analysis, particularly for ethanol and drugs of abuse, plays a large role in the forensic investigation of natural and unnatural deaths. Postmortem drug concentrations must be interpreted in light of the autopsy findings and circumstances. Interpretations of drug and ethanol concentrations are important for death certification, but they also may be important for other stakeholders such as police, attorneys, public health practitioners, and the next-of-kin.
authors.affiliation: Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Farmington, CT, USA. jgill@ocme.org.|Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. jgill@ocme.org.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000032:analysis; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D003334:Coroners and Medical Examiners; D003644:Death Certificates; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Autopsy; Death certification; Ethanol; Forensic pathology; Opioids; Toxicology