Postmortem tryptase thresholds are quoted in autopsy reports and in court as if they were a settled quantity derived from a common body of evidence. Because these thresholds reach practice through the review literature rather than through any single primary study, we examined that literature directly. We conducted a meta-research analysis of twelve reviews on the postmortem diagnosis of fatal anaphylaxis, identified by a structured search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. Six reviews had an enumerable primary-study corpus and entered an overlap analysis based on the corrected covered area. For every numerical threshold we extracted its basis of derivation and the direction of the accompanying recommendation, and we recomputed the reported operating characteristics from each review's own tables.The six reviews declared 106 study inclusions, which resolved to 72 unique primary studies; 53 (73.6%) were cited by a single review. Overall overlap was moderate (corrected covered area 9.4%; 12.2% when reports from the same cohort were counted once), and the reviews applied eligibility criteria that excluded one another's evidence. Eight thresholds were reported, ranging from 30.4 to 74.2 μg/L, and the two reviews that endorse a numeric cut-off share only two of 27 primary studies. In one review, sensitivity and specificity were computed over study arms rather than decedents. In a second, an area under the curve and its confidence interval were later described as a sensitivity and a specificity, and have since been quoted in that form. In a third, antibody positivity was expressed over all included cases rather than over the cases tested. Four reviews made claims stronger than their appraised confidence, and three of them confined their main limitations to the full text.The thresholds in circulation are therefore not competing readings of shared evidence, and re-analysis cannot reconcile them. Postmortem tryptase should be reported as weighted evidence, together with its sampling context, the host and perimortem factors that affect it, the alternative diagnoses considered and the residual uncertainty, rather than as a test with a cut-off.
Forensic fingermark examiners show substantial inter-examiner variability, yet empirical evidence regarding the effects of structured consensus on examiner judgments remains limited. Three examiner groups (numerical experts, holistic experts, and novices) completed ten standardised Analysis-Comparison-Evaluation (ACE) exercises individually and under a Computer-Assisted Consensus Approach (CACA) that combined independent judgments, extended evaluative scales, computational evidential assessments, and structured deliberation within the Picture Annotation System (PiAnoS). Variability was compared across individual and consensus conditions. Pooling independent judgments as an intermediary between the individual and consensus conditions reduced variability relative to individual assessments, while structured consensus provided additional stabilisation beyond pooling. Consensus reduced variability across observational and evaluative judgments and improved alignment with ground truth among numerical experts. Non-directional inconclusive opinions decreased among expert groups, and where opinions became directional, the resulting opinions were concordant with ground truth. Novices showed reductions in observational variability but more limited changes in evaluative judgments, and the small novice sample warrants cautious interpretation. Overall, structured computer-assisted consensus reduced examiner variability and improved the consistency and evidential correspondence of examiner judgments, supporting the value of documented consensus procedures in forensic practice.
Portable optical coherence tomography (p-OCT) permits rapid, non-contact, high-resolution imaging of the cornea and anterior segment directly at the body, without enucleation or conventional patient positioning. This capability is relevant to forensic practice because postmortem ocular tissues change continuously and are strongly affected by eyelid position, environmental exposure, and acquisition geometry. Published studies have established the feasibility and reliability of p-OCT pachymetry in ovine eyes and human cadavers, but their procedures have not previously been condensed into a single operator-oriented protocol. This Technical Note presents an evidence-informed workflow for postmortem anterior-segment p-OCT. It standardizes specimen positioning, environmental documentation, corneal-reflex alignment, pachymetric-map acquisition, targeted line scanning, image acceptance, replicate measurements, manual caliper measurement after segmentation failure, data preservation, and morphological terminology. The protocol is supported by previously published reliability datasets comprising 46 ovine globes and 58 human eyes, together with human open–closed eye observations and OCT–histology correlation studies. The primary quantitative endpoint is automated mean central corneal thickness within the 0–2 mm zone. Manual measurements are treated as secondary, point-based estimates and must not be pooled with automated values without validation. No isolated OCT sign should be converted into a postmortem-interval estimate. The proposed procedure is intended to improve reproducibility and enable external validation; it is not presented as a validated universal PMI model or formal international consensus standard.
This study examined whether observed post-flashover damage distributions in four small-scale, ventilation-controlled compartment burns with known origins were qualitatively consistent with the Fire Origin Matrix (FOM) used within Origin Matrix Analysis (OMA). Two burns had a known origin in Quadrant 1 and two had a known origin in Quadrant 3. Each compartment had a standardised fuel package and a single doorway ventilation opening and was allowed to progress to short-duration post-flashover conditions before extinguishment and post-burn documentation.In all four burns, the distribution of observed fire damage was qualitatively consistent with the short-duration post-flashover FOM schematic associated with the relevant known origin quadrant. Prominent damage was observed near both the known origin and the doorway, illustrating the potential for vent-proximal damage that complicates interpretation if examined in isolation.This work provides preliminary empirical support for the alignment of the FOM's schematics under the tested conditions. Further blinded, quantitative, multi-observer research across more diverse fire conditions is recommended for more complete validation of OMA, in addition to empirical studies on the practical application of the FOM by fire investigators.
The estimation of Post-Mortem Interval (PMI) remains a global challenge, but the estimation of Post-Mortem Submersion Interval (PMSI) in cases of drowning or those submerged from aquatic ecosystems is still particularly difficult. Decomposition Scoring Systems (DSS) are currently used to estimate PMSI for drowning cases. The most used DSS methods include the Heaton et al. (2010), van Daalen et al. (2017) and Reh (1967), which have been developed in temperate climates with predominantly lighter skin-toned populations. This posed the question, ‘Are these DSS useful for drowning cases involving individuals with darker skin tone?’ We aimed to validate whether current DSS are applicable to forensic cases involving individuals with darker skin tones who were recovered from water. Accurate estimates of the PMSI were assessed using the Heaton, van Daalen and Reh DSS to measure decomposition visible in photographs of 73 cases of bodies recovered from water compared with the stated PMSI in their case notes from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and South Africa. The results showed that discolouration changes in skin can be misleading when using the current DSS for individuals with darker skin tone, and these DSS are erroneous for estimating the PMSI of individuals with darker or lighter skin tones in an advanced decomposition stage or those recovered in cold months. Therefore, current DSS are only applicable to cases with comparable climates and aquatic environments, but also to individuals with lighter skin tones. To improve the PMSI estimation, recommendations are provided to apply the current DSS to individuals with darker skin tones. Additionally, global studies are required to improve the suitability of current DSS to assess decomposition and estimate PMSI for individuals with darker skin tones.
