Citation

Molina DK, Vance K, Coleman ML, Hargrove VM. J. Forensic Sci. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office, 7337 Louis Pasteur Drive, San Antonio, TX, 78227.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14174

PMID

31483504

Abstract

Given the common occurrence of both opioid and cardiovascular deaths, and the concomitant use of opioids in those with cardiac disease, the present study was undertaken to see whether the old adage of using the triad of cerebral and pulmonary edema and bladder fullness to suggest an opioid death could be used to differentiate deaths due to opioid toxicity from deaths due to cardiac disease. Brain weight, lung weight, and bladder fullness were compared among opioid-related deaths, cardiac deaths, and a control population. It was found that opioid-related deaths were more likely to have heavy lungs, a heavy brain, and a full bladder, while cardiac-related deaths had smaller volumes of urine in the bladder and heavier hearts. In conjunction with a thorough investigation, these findings may be useful to forensic pathologists when determining whether a death is opioid-related, especially in the setting of concomitant cardiac disease.

© 2019 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

autopsy; bladder fullness; cardiac deaths; forensic pathology; forensic science; opioid deaths