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Forensic–Histological Diagnosis of Species, Gender, Age, and Identity

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Forensic Histopathology

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Abstract

Histopathology can help, for instance, in the distinction between animal and human bones. In addition to species diagnosis, gender diagnosis is also possible by means of intracellular Barr body detection, despite the fact that systematic studies on different tissue types using different detection methods, particularly on bones, have apparently not been carried out as yet. While histopathological findings are only of limited use in age diagnosis, they are sometimes able to narrow down an individual’s identity, for example, by the histopathological detection of remnants of a largely removed tattoo. However, if tissue maturity, for instance, needs to be determined, microscopy diagnosis is able to provide information here: e.g., by assessing the degree of fetal lung tissue development or the degree of placental maturation.

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  1. University Hospital Giessen Institute of Forensic Medicine, Giessen, Germany

    Reinhard B. Dettmeyer

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Dettmeyer, R.B. (2018). Forensic–Histological Diagnosis of Species, Gender, Age, and Identity. In: Forensic Histopathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77997-3_12

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