@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 1027-1457    Scientific Journal of Forensic Medicine 2019;25(4):165-169

Background
According to articles 493 and 539 of the Islamic Penal Code, it is important the time interval between behavior of the perpetrator and its consequence, as well as death due to contagion of injury or unintentional injuries.
Previous Studies
... [1-6] . “Contagious” or “Non-contagious” crime has been used in the language used by jurists as longitudinal or unintentional crime [6]. The former a crime resulting from another crime and its effect, whereas the latter refers to different crimes that are not associated with each other and they are not affected and result from each other [7]. It is worth noting that terms “contagion” and “affect” have two very different meanings. When it comes to the impact of a trauma on a death, it means that it whether is basically had a role in the death or not. However, for providing a professional viewpoint regarding injury contagion, it is needed to spend a certain amount of time from the injury to be recovered and when the injury is fully recovered, it is possible to determine whether injury contagion can be found in the body of the deceased in any way being contributed to his death.
Aim(s)
The aim of this study was to investigate the one-year requests by the judicial authorities of Tehran for contagious and non-contagious injuries in death.
Research type
This research was a descriptive study.
Research society, place and time
In this study, a total of 77 files of deceased persons were examined in the autopsy room of forensic diagnostic and laboratory center of Tehran province in 2018, and required information was extracted.
Sampling method and number

Used devices&materials
The identities of the deceased were not extracted from their documents and all the principles of the Helsinki Declaration were observed. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software.
Findings by Text
Of the 77 cases studied, 49 cases (63.6%) were male and 28 cases (36.4%) were female, with the age group of 71-80 years as the oldest cases. Also, special investigator for death was the most common interrogator who had inquired about contagious and non-contagious injuries from the forensic organization. Regarding the time interval between injury and death, most of the cases had died less than one week after the unintentional injury (Table 1).Of the 77 deaths, 61 cases had contagious injury, 2 cases non-contagious injury and 14 were partially affected, according to the expert. The most common cause of non-contagious injury was minor injuries, including abrasion, cuts, ruptures, bruises, and subcutaneous hemorrhage, followed by femoral fractures. The most common causes of death in contagious injuries were multiple bodily injuries, multiple bone fractures, and cerebral hemorrhage (Table 2).
Main comparison to the similar studies
It is noteworthy that in the present study, 16 cases (20.8%) were died at the scene and were not considered as contagion injuries. There is a need to an interval for injury contagion and a death due to the initial injury; however, for cases who died at the scene, there is no gap between the time of the injury and the death. Therefore, the injury cannot be expanded to other organs and can be immediately fatal and contagion is not possible. Also, 14 cases (18.2%) had been relatively affected, which based on the authors seems incorrect, because regarding injury contagion, even small injuries are effective to cause a death and consider contagion. Therefore, relative impact is not acceptable and the injuries are merely divided into contagious and non-contagious. … [8, 9].
Suggestions

Limitations
There was no limitation.
Conclusions
The deceased who died on the scene do not fall under the category of contagion. It is also incorrect to declare the contagion of the damage in the form of a relative impact on the authors' beliefs; therefore, injuries are merely divided into contagious and non-contagious. In any case, it will be up to the forensic doctor to determine whether the death is due to contagion.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to all the respected staff of Tehran Forensic Diagnostic and Forensic Laboratory who assisted in investigating the documents of the dead cases and collecting data.
Conflict of interest
None
Ethical Permissions
All the principles of the Helsinki Ethical Statement were observed (Ethics code: IR.LMO.REC.1396.41).
Funding Sources
This study was funded by the Forensic Medicine Organization of Tehran.

TABLES and CHARTS

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