title: Anterior wrist and medial malleolus as the novel sites of tissue selection: a retrospective study on electric shock death through the hand-to-foot circuit pathway.
abstract: Our previous work demonstrated that characteristic changes could occur in the anterior wrist and medial malleolus in electric deaths through the hand-to-foot electric circuit pathway in an electric shock rat model. However, whether the same phenomenon occurs in humans is unknown. The aim of the present retrospective study was to ascertain whether the anterior wrist and medial malleolus could also be selected as the promising and significant sites in electric death through the hand-to-foot circuit pathway. Nineteen human cases from the autopsy and one clinical survivor who sustained a severe electric shock through the hand-to-foot circuit pathway were analyzed. Additional ten autopsy patients who died from traffic accidents and sudden cardiac attacks were used as the control group. Histopathological changes in the soft tissues of the anterior wrist and medial malleolus in all autopsy patients, as well as the electric current pathway of the survivor, were observed. The results showed that the nuclear polarizations in the anterior wrist and medial malleolus soft tissues of the electric death were extremely noticeable as compared with the controls. The most severe electrical injury in the survivor occurred in the anterior wrist. These findings suggest that the soft tissues of the anterior wrist and/or the medial malleolus as the narrowest parts of the limbs could be used as the complementary sites for tissue selection and considered as necessary locations for examinations to assess the electric death in medicolegal identification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.|Department of Forensic Pathology, Provincial Key Disciplines, Jiaxing University Medical College, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangtao
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5846-9280
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ruibing
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junyao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Jiaxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.|Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xianxian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Pathology, National Key Disciplines, Collaborative and Creative Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China. xjyu@stu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016512:Ankle Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004556:Electric Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014954:Wrist Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anterior wrist; Electric death; Medial malleolus; Nuclear polarization