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Toxoplasmosis was linked to impairment in brain function, encompassing a wide range of behavioral and neuropsychiatric changes. Currently, the precise localization of Toxoplasma gondii in the human brain is limited and the parasite DNA was not found in population-based screening of autopsy cases. The aim of proposed study was to identify the presence of parasite DNA within the brain and its association with risky behavior and alcohol consumption in postmortem examination. Preliminarily, 102 cases with certain circumstances of death at time of forensic autopsy was included. Due to high risk of bias, the females were excluded from the analysis and final study group consists 97 cases divided into three groups: risky behavior, inconclusively risky behavior, and control group. The obtained tissue samples for Nested PCR covered four regions of the brain: symmetric left/right and anterior/posterior horns of lateral ventricles comprising lining ependyma and hippocampus. The second type of material comprised blood evaluated for antibodies prevalence using ELISA and alcohol concentration using HS-GC-FID. Analysis demonstrated 16.5% prevalence concerning the parasite DNA presence in examined brain tissue samples without specific distribution and association with age at death or days after death until an autopsy was performed. Results have shown correlation between occurrence of risky behavior leading to death and higher proportions of positive parasite DNA presence within the brain. Correlation was not observed between parasite DNA presence and excessive alcohol consumption. Conducted screening demonstrated correlation between parasite DNA presence in the brain with risky behavior and provided new information on possible effects of latent toxoplasmosis.

Due to their anatomical location, occipital condylar fractures (OCFs) are usually not observed during traditional autopsies and are therefore considered a rare injury. The aim of this study was to determine the true frequency of OCFs using post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) in traumatic casualties. We retrospectively analyzed 438 PMCT studies of victims of traffic accidents, falls from height, violence, and low-energy head injuries (324 males and 114 females). OCFs were present in 22.6% of cases ( n = 99), mostly in victims of railway accidents (48.5%, n = 17), falls from height (26.6%, n = 29), cyclists (24%, n = 6), and pedestrians hit by cars (22.5%, n = 29). Isolated OCFs were found in 5.5% of cases ( n = 24), most often in cyclists (12%, n = 3) and pedestrians (9.3%, n = 12) hit by cars. There were no OCFs in the cases of fatalities caused by violence or accidental low-energy head injury. PMCT scans revealed that OCFs are common in high-energy injury fatalities and can be useful for determining the mechanism of trauma more precisely.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is characterized by various micro-and macrostructural neuropathological changes which can be identified in the light microscope examination. The most common pathophenotype of TBI visualized in postmortem neuropathological assessment includes neuron injury with involvement of all of its structural regions followed by its progressive degeneration defined as traumatic axonal injury (TAI). This is directly related with disruption of the axolemmal cytoskeletal network architecture resulting in breakdown, dissolution and accumulation of a number of neuronal proteins. Regarding the availability and progress in the development of specific antibodies against neuronal proteins, their usage is restricted due to low specificity for injured axons in the pathomechanism of TBI followed by TAI. Taking this into account with relation to expanding the role of axonal cytoskeleton and its based biomarkers we have presented a study documenting neuropathological features concerning the expression of dynein (DNAH9), dynactin (DCTN1) and kinesin (KIF5B) in the brain specimens obtained during forensic autopsies from TBI victims. The study was carried out using cases (n = 21) of severe head injury suspected to be the cause of death and control cases (n = 17) of sudden death in the mechanism of cardiopulmonary failure along with a positive control case which died after suicidal gunshot injury. In our study, we documented that DNAH9, DCTN1, and KIF5B staining should be considered as a supplemental diagnostic tool for TBI in postmortem neuropathological examination and forensic autopsy. This additional motor protein immunohistochemical staining procedure could be useful in the evaluation of lesions that may remain undiagnosed during a routine examination and aid in more accurate identification of TBI followed by TAI.