Forensic Medicine MCQs for NEET PG
890 worked Forensic Medicine questions across 77 areas. Each one has its own page with the reasoning for every option.
What this set is
Forensic Medicine is a compact subject with high predictability: thanatology, injuries, asphyxia and toxicology carry much of it. It also touches law and ethics, which changes over time.
This page lists the 890 Forensic Medicine questions that have a full worked page: 676 application questions that put a fact to use on a patient or a finding, and 214 multi-step questions that combine two or more ideas. Plain one-fact recall items are left out here on purpose. The Forensic Medicine practice bank in the app is larger, with 2,824 questions in all, and is where timed tests and daily practice draw from.
How to use it
- Pick an area you are weak in, below.
- Answer first, then read why each wrong option fails.
- Write a three-line note for every miss, and revisit it in a week.
- Move to a timed Forensic Medicine test once an area feels steady.
These are original practice items, not recalled exam questions, and they are not yet reviewed by independent faculty. Confirm important facts in a standard textbook.
What Forensic Medicine covers in the exam
- Thanatology
- Identification
- Injuries and wounds
- Asphyxial deaths
- Toxicology
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry
- Medical law and ethics
A study map from the standard curriculum; the NBEMS bulletin is the authority. See the Forensic Medicine study guide.
Worked questions by area
77 areas, largest first. Open an area to see its questions.
Toxicology169
- Toxicology · ApplicationTransverse white lines on the nails (Mees' lines) are a feature of chronic poisoning with:
- Toxicology · ApplicationCherry-red post-mortem lividity is classically associated with poisoning by which agent?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich snake venom is predominantly neurotoxic?
- Toxicology · ApplicationA jewellery worker is found dead with a smell of bitter almonds from the stomach contents and bright red post-mortem staining. What is the mechanism of the poison?
- Toxicology · ApplicationAfter drinking illicit liquor a man has blurred vision with a snowstorm appearance and severe metabolic acidosis. Which substance is mainly responsible for the ocular t…
- Toxicology · ApplicationA battery worker has abdominal colic, wrist drop and a bluish line on the gums. Which poison is suspected?
- Toxicology · ApplicationA man ingests tablets sold as a grain preservative. His breath smells of garlic or rotting fish, and he develops refractory hypotension and cardiac failure. Which poiso…
- Toxicology · ApplicationA man who swallowed a disinfectant has white corrosive burns around the lips and mouth. His urine turns dark green on standing. Which poison is likely?
- Toxicology · ApplicationA man bitten by a snake has bleeding gums, haematuria and persistent bleeding from the bite site. A bedside 20-minute whole blood clotting test shows non-clotting blood…
- Toxicology · ApplicationA man is found dead after convulsions with arched back and trismus. Witnesses say he remained fully conscious and spasms were triggered by touch or noise. Which poison…
- Toxicology · ApplicationA toddler accidentally swallows kerosene. Which step should be avoided in management?
- Toxicology: plant poisons · ApplicationA young woman is brought in after chewing seeds of the yellow oleander (Thevetia peruviana). She has vomiting, bradycardia with heart block and hyperkalaemia. Which tre…
- Toxicology: non-metallic poisons · ApplicationA man who swallowed a rodenticide paste vomits material that smells of garlic and appears luminous in the dark. Which poison is likely?
- Toxicology: decontamination · ApplicationA man is brought one hour after drinking a toilet cleaner containing hydrochloric acid. He is drooling and has burns on the lips. Which step should be avoided?
- Toxicology: activated charcoal · ApplicationA patient presents one hour after an overdose of a drug. For which drug is activated charcoal least useful because it adsorbs the drug poorly?
- Toxicology: paracetamol overdose · Multi-stepA 20-year-old woman ingested about 15 g of paracetamol two hours ago after a quarrel. She is asymptomatic with normal examination. What is the most appropriate next step?
- Toxicology: lead encephalopathy treatment · ApplicationA 4-year-old child living near a battery recycling unit has seizures, vomiting and a blood lead level of 120 micrograms per dL. What is the appropriate chelation therapy?
- Toxicology: chronic mercury poisoning · ApplicationA worker in a felt-hat factory develops tremors, irritability, shyness, excessive salivation and gum disease. Which poison is responsible?
- Toxicology: intermediate syndrome · ApplicationA farmer treated with atropine and pralidoxime for organophosphate poisoning recovers from the cholinergic crisis. On day 3 he develops weakness of neck flexion and pro…
- Toxicology: aging of cholinesterase · Multi-stepPralidoxime is most effective if given early after organophosphate poisoning. Why does delayed administration fail to reactivate the enzyme?
- Toxicology: paraquat · ApplicationA farmer who swallowed a green weedicide has oral ulcers, vomiting and rising creatinine. A bedside urine test turns blue after adding sodium dithionite in alkaline sol…
- Toxicology: datura poisoning · ApplicationA pilgrim given a spiked sweet becomes delirious, with dry hot flushed skin, dilated pupils, tachycardia and urinary retention. Which antidote can be used for severe ag…
- Toxicology: abrus precatorius · ApplicationA child chews the red and black seeds of Abrus precatorius (jequirity). The toxin abrin acts by which mechanism?
- Toxicology: opium identification · ApplicationA forensic chemist wants to confirm that a brown gummy sample is opium and not pure morphine. Which test is characteristic of opium?
- Toxicology: ethylene glycol · Multi-stepA man found drunk-like after drinking antifreeze has an anion gap metabolic acidosis, rising creatinine and envelope-shaped crystals in urine. What is the most appropri…
- Toxicology: scorpion sting · ApplicationA 6-year-old in rural Maharashtra develops profuse sweating, cold extremities, hypertension, tachycardia and pulmonary oedema after a red scorpion sting. Which drug is…
- Toxicology: tricyclic antidepressant overdose · Multi-stepA 30-year-old woman who took a large amount of amitriptyline has seizures and hypotension. The ECG shows sinus tachycardia with QRS of 140 ms. What is the best next tre…
- Toxicology: methaemoglobinaemia · ApplicationA farm worker after exposure to a nitrite-containing chemical is cyanosed with oxygen saturation of 85% on pulse oximetry that does not improve with oxygen. His blood i…
- Toxicology: iron poisoning · ApplicationA 2-year-old swallowed many iron tablets and now has haematemesis, shock and radio-opaque tablets on an abdominal X-ray. Which antidote is indicated?
- Toxicology: carbon monoxide monitoring · Multi-stepA woman rescued from a closed room with a coal-burning stove has headache and confusion, and her pulse oximeter shows 99%. What is the best way to confirm carbon monoxi…
- Toxicology: amatoxin mushroom poisoning · Multi-stepA family eats wild mushrooms and 10 hours later develops severe vomiting and watery diarrhoea. They improve at 24 hours but on day 3 develop jaundice and coagulopathy.…
- Toxicology: thallium poisoning · ApplicationA man develops severe painful paraesthesias in the feet, then loses scalp hair about 2 weeks after ingesting a rodenticide. Which antidote is used?
- Toxicology: salicylate poisoning · Multi-stepA 3-year-old child who swallowed oil of wintergreen has tinnitus, vomiting, fever and fast deep breathing. Which acid-base pattern is expected, and what is the key trea…
- Toxicology: cholinesterase estimation · ApplicationA farmer exposed to an organophosphate pesticide is being monitored. Which statement about cholinesterase testing is correct?
- Toxicology: organochlorine poisoning · ApplicationA child is brought with tonic-clonic convulsions after ingesting an endosulfan-containing pesticide. Which step should be avoided in management?
- Toxicology: aconite poisoning · ApplicationA man takes an herbal tonic containing Aconitum root and presents with tingling around the mouth, vomiting, palpitations and ventricular ectopics. What is the mechanism…
- Toxicology: sea snake envenomation · ApplicationA fisherman bitten by a sea snake feels little pain, but 2 hours later develops severe generalised muscle pain, weakness and dark brown urine. Which mechanism explains…
- Toxicology: pituitary failure after viper bite · Multi-stepA 35-year-old woman bitten by Russell's viper 8 months ago was treated with antivenom and recovered from renal injury. She now has amenorrhoea, fatigue, hypotension and…
- Toxicology: collection of blood for alcohol analysis · Multi-stepA driver is brought after a road traffic accident and the police request blood alcohol estimation. Which collection technique is most appropriate?
- Toxicology: acid ingestion complication · Multi-stepA 28-year-old woman swallowed a concentrated toilet cleaner containing sulphuric acid 6 weeks ago. She now has vomiting after meals and visible gastric peristalsis. Whi…
- Toxicology: body packer management · Multi-stepA man arriving on an international flight has an abdominal radiograph showing multiple uniform ovoid packets in the bowel. He is asymptomatic with normal vital signs. W…
- Toxicology: flumazenil in mixed overdose · Multi-stepA 30-year-old woman is found drowsy with empty strips of amitriptyline and clonazepam. Her respiratory rate is low and her ECG shows a QRS of 130 ms. A junior suggests…
- Toxicology: cyanide antidote in smoke inhalation · Multi-stepA man rescued from a closed-room fire has soot around the mouth, shock, a lactate of 12 mmol/L and carboxyhaemoglobin of 25%. Co-existent cyanide poisoning is suspected…
- Toxicology: epidemic dropsy · ApplicationIn a village, many people develop bilateral pitting leg oedema, diarrhoea and erythema, and some have glaucoma, after eating food cooked in mustard oil bought from a lo…
- Toxicology: sample from gastric lavage · Multi-stepA man brought with suspected homicidal poisoning after a family dispute needs gastric lavage. How should the lavage specimen be handled?
- Toxicology: oxalic acid poisoning · Multi-stepA man drinks a rust-removing solution and develops perioral numbness, carpopedal spasm and a prolonged QT interval. Urine microscopy shows envelope-shaped crystals. Whi…
- Toxicology: chronic arsenic exposure · ApplicationResidents of a village in the Ganga delta who drink tube-well water develop palmar and plantar hyperkeratosis and patchy hyperpigmentation. Which cancer is a recognised…
- Toxicology: carbamate poisoning · Multi-stepA farmer develops sweating, salivation and miosis after spraying carbaryl and recovers within 24 hours with atropine alone. Why are oximes generally not needed?
- Toxicology: barbiturate overdose · Multi-stepA woman with phenobarbitone overdose is deeply comatose with hypothermia and blisters over pressure points. Besides airway support, which measure enhances elimination o…
- Toxicology: lathyrism · ApplicationDuring a drought, labourers in a village eat khesari dal for months and develop gradual spastic weakness of both legs with normal sensation. What is the causative toxin?
- Toxicology: dimercaprol contraindication · Multi-stepA factory worker with chronic cadmium poisoning has tubular proteinuria. A junior doctor proposes dimercaprol (BAL). Why should this be avoided?
- Toxicology: body stuffer syndrome · Multi-stepA drug courier at an airport hurriedly swallows several loosely wrapped cocaine packets just as police approach. Which statement is correct?
- Toxicology: choice of EDTA salt · Multi-stepA nurse has two vials, disodium EDTA and calcium disodium EDTA, for a child with lead poisoning. Which should be used, and why?
- Toxicology: acid attack first aid · ApplicationA woman is brought within minutes after a man threw concentrated acid on her face and neck. What is the most important first-aid measure at the scene?
- Toxicology: pyrethroid poisoning · ApplicationA farmer who sprayed an insecticide without gloves has tingling and burning paraesthesia of the exposed skin and mild cough, with normal pupils and a normal serum choli…
- Toxicology: viper bite, 20-minute whole blood clotting test · Multi-stepA farmer bitten by a Russell's viper is given antivenom after a 20-minute whole blood clotting test shows unclotted blood. Six hours later the repeat test still shows u…
- Toxicology: analytical methods · ApplicationA forensic laboratory must give court-admissible confirmation of an unknown drug in a viscera extract after a thin-layer chromatography screen was positive. Which techn…
- Toxicology: MDMA · Multi-stepAn 18-year-old at an all-night dance party is brought with agitation, jaw clenching, temperature of 41 degrees Celsius and a serum sodium of 124 mEq/L after drinking a…
- Toxicology: NDPS Act · ApplicationA heroin-dependent man is arrested with a small quantity meant for personal use and volunteers for treatment at a recognised de-addiction centre. How does the Narcotic…
- Toxicology: mineral acids · ApplicationA man presents after drinking an acid. The lips and chin show yellow stains and the oral mucosa appears yellow and leathery. Which acid is most likely?
- Toxicology: ethanol and drunk driving · Multi-stepA driver's blood alcohol is 40 mg/100 mL, measured 4 hours after a collision. If ethanol is eliminated at about 15 mg/100 mL per hour, what was the approximate level at…
- Toxicology: NDPS Act · ApplicationA person is caught with a quantity of a narcotic drug that is more than the small quantity but less than the commercial quantity. Under the NDPS Act, what is the punish…
- Toxicology: tramadol overdose · Multi-stepA young man who took a large quantity of tramadol has a generalised seizure, after which he is drowsy with slow breathing. Which statement about his management is corre…
- Toxicology: clonidine overdose · Multi-stepA toddler who swallowed tablets from his grandfather's strip is drowsy with pinpoint pupils, bradycardia and hypotension, and responds only partially to naloxone. Which…
- Toxicology: chloroquine overdose · Multi-stepA young woman who swallowed a large number of chloroquine tablets has hypotension, a wide QRS complex and hypokalaemia. Which treatment is traditionally added to ventil…
- Toxicology: Bacillus cereus food poisoning · Multi-stepEight guests develop vomiting two hours after eating fried rice kept warm for hours at a wedding. None has fever. Which organism is responsible?
- Toxicology: scombroid poisoning · Multi-stepThirty minutes after eating tuna that was left unrefrigerated, a man develops flushing, headache, itching and palpitations. What is the mechanism?
- Toxicology: stonefish sting · ApplicationA fisherman steps on a stonefish and has excruciating pain at the puncture. Which first-aid measure is recommended?
- Toxicology: fenthion poisoning · Multi-stepA farmer with fenthion poisoning improves with atropine, but three days later has recurrent bronchorrhoea, sweating and miosis even though the exposure has stopped. Wha…
- Toxicology: compartment syndrome after viper bite · Multi-stepA man with a viper bite has a tense swollen leg, severe pain and an incoagulable blood. Distal pulses are present. What is the best approach?
- Toxicology: amitraz poisoning · Multi-stepA child who drank a livestock tick wash is drowsy, with bradycardia, hypotension, miosis, hypothermia and a high blood glucose. Which poison is the most likely?
- Toxicology: fetal alcohol syndrome · ApplicationA newborn of a mother with chronic heavy alcohol use has growth retardation, microcephaly and short palpebral fissures. Which additional facial feature is characteristic?
- Toxicology: dabigatran bleeding · ApplicationA patient on dabigatran has life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding. Which agent specifically reverses its effect?
- Toxicology: osmolal gap in toxic alcohols · Multi-stepA patient with suspected toxic alcohol ingestion has a high anion gap acidosis and a raised osmolal gap. When the patient presents late, why may the osmolal gap be norm…
- Toxicology: quinine toxicity · ApplicationA patient who took many quinine tablets has tinnitus, blurred vision progressing to blindness, and hypoglycaemia. What is this syndrome called?
- Toxicology: nitrobenzene poisoning · Multi-stepA worker who spilled a shoe-polish solvent on his clothes develops a smell of bitter almonds, headache and chocolate-brown blood with cyanosis that does not improve on…
- Toxicology: ackee fruit poisoning · ApplicationA child who ate unripe ackee fruit has severe vomiting followed by convulsions and profound hypoglycaemia. Which toxin is responsible?
- Toxicology: lead in kohl · ApplicationAn infant has anaemia, irritability and constipation. The mother applies surma (kohl) to the baby's eyes daily. Which toxicant is the likely source?
- Toxicology: hypochlorite ingestion · ApplicationA toddler drinks a small amount of household bleach and has only mild oral irritation and vomiting. What is the appropriate management?
- Toxicology: drug-induced acute dystonia · ApplicationHours after an overdose of a phenothiazine, a young woman has torticollis, oculogyric crisis and a protruding tongue. What is the treatment of choice?
- Toxicology: carbon tetrachloride · ApplicationA worker exposed to a dry-cleaning solvent has vomiting followed by jaundice and oliguria. The liver shows centrilobular necrosis with fatty change. Which solvent is th…
- Toxicology: vinyl chloride · ApplicationA worker in a PVC plant for many years is found to have a malignant liver tumour of vascular origin. Which chemical exposure is classically linked?
- Toxicology: Semecarpus anacardium · ApplicationA washerman develops severe vesicular dermatitis after handling the black juice of a marking nut. Which plant is responsible?
- Toxicology: monoamine oxidase inhibitor interaction · Multi-stepA patient on phenelzine eats mature cheese and develops a severe occipital headache, a blood pressure of 230/130 and sweating. What is the mechanism?
- Toxicology: benzene exposure · ApplicationA shoe-factory worker exposed to solvent vapours for years develops pancytopenia with a hypocellular bone marrow. Which solvent is the likely cause?
- Toxicology: copper sulphate · Multi-stepA farmer swallows a blue crystalline substance used as a fungicide. He vomits blue-green material, has a metallic taste, and develops jaundice and dark urine from intra…
- Toxicology: detection of phosphine · Multi-stepIn a patient suspected of aluminium phosphide ingestion, a bedside test is done on the gastric aspirate. A paper moistened with silver nitrate held over the aspirate tu…
- Toxicology: paraquat · ApplicationA farmer drinks a green herbicide and develops oral ulcers and vomiting. Over the next two weeks he has progressive breathlessness and hypoxia, and later renal failure.…
- Toxicology: methanol antidote · ApplicationA patient with methanol poisoning has an anion gap acidosis and visual loss. Which drug is given to block the conversion of methanol into its toxic metabolite?
- Toxicology: Cleistanthus collinus poisoning · Multi-stepAfter a family quarrel a farmer drinks a decoction of the leaves of a forest shrub. The next day he has vomiting and marked limb weakness. Serum potassium is 2.1 mEq/L…
- Toxicology: Gloriosa superba poisoning · Multi-stepA labourer eats the tubers of a climbing plant, mistaking them for yam. Within hours he has burning in the mouth, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. By day four there is le…
- Toxicology: Calotropis poisoning · ApplicationA woman applies the milky latex of a roadside shrub with large oval leaves and pale purple flowers to induce an abortion. She develops vomiting, bradycardia, hyperkalae…
- Toxicology: superwarfarin poisoning · Multi-stepA girl swallows a rodent bait and presents three days later with bruising, haematuria and an INR above 10. After vitamin K and fresh frozen plasma she improves, but the…
- Toxicology: isopropyl alcohol · Multi-stepA man is brought in drowsy and ataxic, with acetone-smelling breath and a gastritis picture. Blood glucose is normal, urine ketones are strongly positive, and there is…
- Toxicology: hydrofluoric acid burn · ApplicationA laboratory worker spills an acid on his hand. He has intense pain out of proportion to the minimal skin changes, and the ECG later shows a long QT interval. Which tre…
- Toxicology: cocaethylene · ApplicationA man dies of a cardiac arrest after using cocaine along with a large amount of alcohol. The laboratory reports a metabolite formed in the liver only when both were tak…
- Toxicology: hallucinogen persisting perception disorder · ApplicationA 22-year-old who took LSD at a party has recurrent episodes over the next months of trails behind moving objects and halos, without taking any further drug. His insigh…
- Toxicology: nicotine poisoning · ApplicationA farmer sprays a nicotine-based insecticide without protection. He develops salivation, vomiting, sweating, tachycardia and hypertension, followed by muscle fasciculat…
- Toxicology: sudden sniffing death · ApplicationA 17-year-old who has been inhaling butane from a lighter refill collapses and dies after being startled and running away. Autopsy shows no cause. What is the most like…
- Toxicology: cantharidin · ApplicationA man takes a powder sold as an aphrodisiac made from a dried beetle. He develops a burning mouth, vomiting, blood in the urine with painful straining to pass urine, an…
- Toxicology: exogenous insulin administration · Multi-stepA non-diabetic patient is found unresponsive with a blood glucose of 25 mg/dL. Laboratory tests drawn at that time show a very high serum insulin and a suppressed C-pep…
- Toxicology: cyanogenic glycosides · ApplicationA child eats a large number of bitter apricot kernels and soon develops breathlessness, headache and collapse, with a bitter almond smell on the breath and bright red v…
- Toxicology: paraphenylenediamine hair dye poisoning · Multi-stepA young woman drinks a black hair dye. Within two hours her face and tongue swell, she has stridor, and her voice is hoarse. Dark urine and falling urine output follow…
- Toxicology: potassium permanganate · ApplicationA man swallows purple crystals dissolved in water. He has brown-black staining of the lips and tongue, hoarseness from laryngeal oedema and burning epigastric pain. Whi…
- Toxicology: isoniazid overdose · ApplicationA young woman who swallowed a large number of antituberculosis tablets in a suicide attempt is brought with repeated generalised seizures that do not respond to diazepa…
- Toxicology: lithium toxicity · Multi-stepA man on long-term lithium for bipolar disorder develops gastroenteritis, then a coarse tremor, ataxia, vomiting and confusion. The serum lithium level is markedly rais…
- Toxicology: theophylline toxicity · Multi-stepA man with asthma on a sustained-release theophylline preparation takes a double dose by mistake and has vomiting, tremor, sinus tachycardia and a generalised seizure.…
- Toxicology: beta-blocker overdose · ApplicationA woman who swallowed her father's propranolol tablets has a heart rate of 38 per minute, hypotension and hypoglycaemia, and does not respond to atropine. Which drug is…
- Toxicology: calcium channel blocker overdose · ApplicationA man on verapamil for an arrhythmia swallows a large number of tablets. He has bradycardia, hypotension and a raised blood glucose. Which drug is given as the first-li…
- Toxicology: sulfonylurea overdose · Multi-stepA diabetic man takes an overdose of glibenclamide. He has recurrent hypoglycaemia over several hours despite repeated boluses of 25 percent dextrose, with a high insuli…
- Toxicology: metformin toxicity · ApplicationAn elderly man with chronic kidney disease takes a large overdose of metformin and has hyperventilation and vomiting. Which acid-base picture is expected?
- Toxicology: valproate hyperammonaemia · Multi-stepA girl on sodium valproate takes an overdose and becomes drowsy. Liver enzymes are near normal but the arterial ammonia level is high. Which agent may be used to treat…
- Toxicology: serotonin syndrome · Multi-stepA patient taking sertraline is started on linezolid and soon has agitation, sweating, temperature of 39 degrees Celsius, tremor, hyperreflexia and inducible ankle clonu…
- Toxicology: digoxin toxicity arrhythmia · Multi-stepAn elderly woman with renal impairment on digoxin has nausea, visual disturbance with yellow vision, and a fast irregular pulse. Which arrhythmia is most characteristic…
- Toxicology: Wernicke's encephalopathy · ApplicationA chronic alcoholic is brought with confusion, nystagmus and ataxia. A nurse prepares to start a dextrose infusion. Which drug must be given first?
- Toxicology: alcohol withdrawal delirium · ApplicationA chronic drinker admitted with a fracture develops tremor, vivid visual hallucinations, fever, tachycardia and disorientation on the third day. What is the drug of cho…
- Toxicology: disulfiram-like reaction · ApplicationA man being treated with metronidazole for trichomoniasis drinks beer and within minutes has flushing, a throbbing headache, palpitations and vomiting. Which substance…
- Toxicology: Widmark factor · Multi-stepIn Widmark's method of estimating blood alcohol from the amount consumed, the distribution factor (r) is lower in women than in men. What is the reason?
- Toxicology: kinetics of alcohol elimination · ApplicationIn a drink-driving case, serial blood samples show that the alcohol level falls in an almost straight line with time and not exponentially. What explains this?
- Toxicology: principle of the breath analyser · ApplicationA traffic police officer uses a breath analyser to estimate a driver's blood alcohol. Which principle allows breath alcohol to be converted into a blood level?
- Toxicology: Reinsch test · ApplicationA screening test for heavy metals in stomach contents is done by boiling a clean copper strip in the acidified sample. The strip acquires a dark grey-black deposit. Whi…
- Toxicology: biochemical effects of lead · Multi-stepA battery-factory worker has anaemia and abdominal colic, and the blood film shows coarse basophilic stippling of red cells. Which enzymes are inhibited by the metal re…
- Toxicology: barium carbonate poisoning · Multi-stepA man ingests barium carbonate rat poison and has vomiting, diarrhoea, progressive flaccid weakness and U waves on the ECG. Which laboratory abnormality is responsible…
- Toxicology: metal fume fever · ApplicationA welder cutting galvanised sheets has fever, chills, a metallic taste and aching muscles some hours after work. He recovers fully in about two days. Which fumes are re…
- Toxicology: botulism mechanism · ApplicationThree family members have blurred vision, drooping eyelids, dilated pupils, difficulty swallowing and descending flaccid weakness a day after eating home-canned vegetab…
- Toxicology: staphylococcal food poisoning · ApplicationAbout twenty guests at a wedding develop sudden vomiting and cramps three hours after eating cream-filled pastries. Fever is slight and all recover within a day. Which…
- Toxicology: reaction to antisnake venom · ApplicationDuring an infusion of polyvalent antisnake venom, a patient develops urticaria, wheeze and a fall in blood pressure. What is the immediate management?
- Toxicology: neostigmine in neurotoxic snakebite · Multi-stepA patient bitten by a cobra has ptosis and limb weakness that persist after adequate antisnake venom. Which drug combination may improve neuromuscular transmission?
- Toxicology: phosgene exposure · ApplicationWorkers exposed to a leaking industrial gas with the smell of newly mown hay seem well for several hours, and then develop breathlessness and frothy sputum. Which gas w…
- Toxicology: naphthalene in G6PD deficiency · ApplicationA 3-year-old boy with G6PD deficiency swallowed a mothball and two days later has pallor, jaundice and dark urine. What is the underlying process?
- Toxicology: organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy · Multi-stepTwo weeks after recovering from acute organophosphate poisoning, a man develops burning of the feet and then distal limb weakness with foot drop. He has no cholinergic…
- Toxicology: atropine endpoint in organophosphate poisoning · ApplicationA patient with organophosphate poisoning is being given repeated doses of atropine. Which clinical endpoint indicates adequate atropinisation?
- Toxicology: sympathomimetic toxidrome · Multi-stepA young man is brought agitated, with dilated pupils, profuse sweating, a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius, tachycardia and hypertension. Bowel sounds are present. Whi…
- Toxicology: naloxone resedation · Multi-stepA heroin user is revived with intravenous naloxone but refuses admission. About 90 minutes later he is found drowsy with slow breathing. Why has this happened?
- Toxicology: muscarinic mushroom poisoning · ApplicationWithin 30 minutes of eating wild mushrooms, a man has sweating, salivation, lacrimation, diarrhoea, bradycardia and small pupils. Which antidote is used?
- Toxicology: hair analysis in chronic poisoning · ApplicationA woman is suspected of having been poisoned with arsenic in small doses over several months. Which sample best shows the timeline of her exposure?
- Toxicology: dialysability of poisons · Multi-stepHaemodialysis is helpful for several poisonings. Which of the following drugs is least likely to be removed effectively by it because of a large volume of distribution…
- Toxicology: sampling in drug-facilitated assault · ApplicationA woman reports amnesia and suspected sexual assault after an evening at a party, and a drug-facilitated assault is suspected. Why should a urine sample be collected as…
- Toxicology · ApplicationPinpoint pupils and respiratory depression suggest what exposure?
- Toxicology · ApplicationDry hot skin, mydriasis, and urinary retention suggest what toxidrome?
- Toxicology · ApplicationProfuse secretions and miosis suggest what toxidrome?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich test confirms carbon-monoxide exposure?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich sample often assists toxicology in living patient?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat toxidrome includes agitation, sweating, and tachycardia?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat toxidrome includes dry skin and urinary retention?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat is a characteristic pupil finding in opioid poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich antidote reverses opioid-induced respiratory depression?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich toxidrome is suggested by salivation, sweating, and miosis?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich drug is used with atropine in organophosphate poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationCherry-red discoloration is classically associated with which poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat clinical feature is common in methanol poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich toxic alcohol antidote inhibits alcohol dehydrogenase?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat poisoning may cause severe metabolic acidosis and visual symptoms?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat sample is commonly used to estimate blood alcohol concentration?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat is the priority after collecting specimens for suspected poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat specimen is useful for toxicology when blood is unavailable in a decomposed body?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat is a typical clinical feature of salicylate poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat antidote is used for significant acetaminophen poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat pupil finding is typical of opioid intoxication?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat antidote reverses opioid respiratory depression?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat toxidrome includes salivation, sweating, and miosis?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat coloring is classically associated with carbon monoxide poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat symptom is characteristic of methanol poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhich clinical toxidrome is most characteristic of organophosphate poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhat feature is especially concerning for methanol poisoning?
- Toxicology · ApplicationWhy can carbon monoxide poisoning be difficult to recognize from pulse oximetry alone?
- Toxicology: ethanol · ApplicationWhich specimen is generally important for forensic toxicology in suspected alcohol intoxication?
- Toxicology: organophosphates · ApplicationWhich toxidrome is most consistent with organophosphate poisoning?
- Toxicology: carbon monoxide · ApplicationWhy can pulse oximetry be misleading in carbon monoxide poisoning?
Identification81
- Identification · ApplicationSkeletal remains are found, and nuclear DNA cannot be obtained, but a maternal relative is available. Which DNA analysis is most suitable for identification?
- Identification: fingerprint pattern types · ApplicationA fingerprint shows ridges that enter from one side, recurve and leave on the same side, with one core and a single delta. How is this pattern classified?
- Identification: palatal rugae · ApplicationA badly burnt body of an edentulous middle-aged man is brought for identification, and an old denture cast is available from his dentist. Which feature, partly protecte…
- Identification: sexing the skull · ApplicationAn anthropologist examines a skull to determine sex. Which feature favours a female skull?
- Identification: sexing the pelvis · ApplicationWhich pelvic feature is typical of the female pelvis when sex is being determined from skeletal remains?
- Identification: ossification at birth · ApplicationA newborn is found dead and the pathologist wants osseous evidence of full-term maturity. Which ossification centre is normally present at birth?
- Identification: cephalic index · Multi-stepA skull has a maximum breadth of 13.5 cm and a maximum length of 19.0 cm. What is the cephalic index and how is the skull classified?
- Identification: bite mark evidence · ApplicationA forensic dentist wishes to recover the assailant's saliva for DNA from a suspected bite mark on the victim's skin before any cleaning. Which technique is recommended?
- Identification: disaster victim identification · Multi-stepAfter an air crash with fragmented and burnt bodies, which set of methods are the primary identifiers under the Interpol disaster victim identification guidelines?
- Identification: Y-chromosome STR typing · Multi-stepA vaginal swab from an alleged assault contains a large quantity of the survivor's DNA and only a trace of male DNA, and routine autosomal STR typing fails to give a ma…
- Identification: tattoo marks · ApplicationAn exhumed body shows a clear tattoo on the forearm even though the epidermis has slipped off. In which layer is tattoo pigment deposited?
- Identification: hair examination · Multi-stepMicroscopic examination of a hair found at a scene shows a medulla that occupies about one-fifth of the shaft diameter. What is the likely origin and the principle used?
- Identification: Gustafson's method · ApplicationGustafson's method of estimating adult age at death examines a longitudinal section of a tooth for which set of changes?
- Identification: skull superimposition · ApplicationSkeletal remains have been recovered and a photograph of a missing person is available. Which technique compares them by overlaying an image of the skull on the photogr…
- Identification: pubic symphysis ageing · ApplicationWhich skeletal site, assessed by Todd's phases or the Suchey-Brooks system, is regarded as among the most reliable for estimating age in young and middle-aged adults?
- Identification: foetal age by Haase's rule · Multi-stepA foetus is recovered with a crown-heel length of 40 cm. Using Haase's rule, what is the approximate gestational age?
- Identification: developing latent prints · ApplicationA latent fingerprint is suspected on a sheet of paper from a ransom note. Which reagent, reacting with amino acids in sweat, is most suitable for developing it?
- Identification: disorders of sex development · Multi-stepA 17-year-old raised as a girl has primary amenorrhoea, well-developed breasts, scanty pubic hair and a blind-ending vagina. Imaging shows no uterus, testes are found i…
- Identification: tattoo marks · ApplicationA man who is a suspect in a robbery had a distinctive tattoo removed from his forearm by laser a year ago. A witness had described the tattoo. How can the forensic expe…
- Identification: skull-photo superimposition · ApplicationA skull is found in a field and the family suggests it belongs to a woman missing for two years. They have a clear frontal photograph of her face. Which technique compa…
- Identification: palatal rugae · ApplicationA badly burnt, edentulous body is brought for identification. The lips and cheeks are charred but the palate is protected. Which feature may help with identification?
- Identification: fetal age and ossification · ApplicationSkeletal remains of a newborn are found in a drain. The forensic expert wants to know whether the fetus had reached near-term maturity. Presence of the ossification cen…
- Identification: dental eruption · ApplicationA youth accused of an offence claims to be 15 years old. A dental radiograph shows fully erupted third molars on all four sides. What can reasonably be concluded?
- Identification: hair examination · ApplicationA single hair found on a victim's clothes is examined under the microscope. The medulla occupies about one-fifth of the hair shaft diameter. What is the most likely ori…
- Identification: age estimation of teeth · Multi-stepSkeletal remains of an adult are found. All permanent teeth are erupted, and a sectioned single-rooted tooth shows attrition, secondary dentine and root transparency. W…
- Identification: sex determination, chromatin · Multi-stepA tall, phenotypically male adult has small firm testes, gynaecomastia and infertility. A buccal smear shows a Barr body in many nuclei. What is the likely karyotype?
- Identification: sexing of the hip bone · Multi-stepA fragment of an adult hip bone is examined for sex. In which situation does the finding favour a female?
- Identification: DNA typing of degraded samples · Multi-stepBones recovered from a house fire yield only highly fragmented DNA. A reference sample from a parent is available. Which technique has the best chance of giving an indi…
- Identification: Y-chromosome STR typing · Multi-stepA vaginal swab from a sexual assault contains very little male DNA mixed with a large amount of the victim's epithelial DNA, and no sperm are seen because the suspect i…
- Identification: developing latent prints · Multi-stepAt a burglary scene, latent prints are suspected on a paper note and on a plastic carrier bag. Which pairing of method to surface is most appropriate?
- Identification: permanence of fingerprints · ApplicationA habitual offender rubbed his fingertips on rough concrete to remove the ridges. After healing, his new prints match his old records. Which fact explains this?
- Identification: sexing the femur · ApplicationSkeletal remains from an excavation include a complete right femur with a vertical diameter of the head measuring 50 mm. By standard osteometric criteria, the bone most…
- Identification: commingled skeletal remains · ApplicationA pit contains commingled skeletal remains with three left femurs, two right femurs and many vertebrae. What is the minimum number of individuals represented?
- Identification: nasal index in race determination · Multi-stepA skull has a nasal height of 50 mm and a nasal breadth of 22 mm. What is the nasal index, and what does it suggest?
- Identification: stature from long bones · ApplicationA skeleton is recovered and the femur measures 45 cm. Taking the femur as about 27 percent of stature, what is the approximate height?
- Identification: juvenile justice · ApplicationA 17-year-old boy is accused of a heinous offence carrying a minimum of seven years of imprisonment. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, what is the correct procedure?
- Identification: bloodstains and seminal fluid grouping · Multi-stepIn a rape case, a seminal stain on a sheet is grouped and shows group B antigen, yet the accused's blood group is O. The accused is a known secretor. What does this ind…
- Identification: interpretation of DNA mixtures · Multi-stepAn STR profile from a vaginal swab of an assault survivor shows, at most loci, three or four alleles of comparable height in addition to the survivor's own alleles. Wha…
- Identification: low copy number DNA · ApplicationA very small number of skin cells recovered from a handled weapon are amplified with extra PCR cycles to obtain a profile. What is the main interpretative problem with…
- Identification: Bombay phenotype in paternity · Multi-stepA man of blood group A is alleged to be the father of a group B child. The mother types as group O, but her serum also agglutinates group O red cells. Which explanation…
- Identification: human versus animal bone · ApplicationA bone fragment found at a site is to be tested to see whether it is of human origin. Which microscopic feature of a ground section favours human bone?
- Identification: ABO grouping in disputed paternity · ApplicationIn a disputed paternity case the mother is group A and her child is group O. The alleged father is group AB. What can be concluded from the ABO grouping?
- Identification: STR profile in paternity testing · ApplicationAt one STR locus a child has alleles 9 and 11, the mother has 9 and 10, and the alleged father has 11 and 13. Which statement is correct for this locus?
- Identification: amelogenin sex typing · ApplicationDNA from the tooth pulp of a burnt, unidentified body is amplified at the amelogenin locus and electrophoresis shows two peaks differing by a few base pairs. What does…
- Identification: collecting evidence from a bite mark · ApplicationA bite mark is found on the breast of a murder victim. Which evidence from the mark is most readily lost if the area is washed or handled, and should be collected early?
- Identification: types of fingerprint impressions · ApplicationA burglar presses a fingertip into a block of soft putty on a window frame, leaving a three-dimensional impression of the ridges. What type of print is this?
- Identification: RFLP versus PCR methods · ApplicationWhich DNA typing method needs a relatively large amount of intact, high-molecular-weight DNA, limiting its use on tiny or degraded forensic samples?
- Identification: monozygotic twins · Multi-stepTwo identical twin brothers are suspected of a robbery. A blood stain at the scene gives a nuclear STR profile that matches both. Which feature can still separate them?
- Identification: cranial suture closure · ApplicationWhich statement about estimating age from closure of the cranial sutures is correct?
- Identification: sexing the sternum · Multi-stepA complete sternum from a skeleton has a manubrium 5.2 cm long and a body 8.4 cm long. What does the ratio of these lengths suggest?
- Identification: sex from teeth · ApplicationWhich tooth shows the greatest difference in size between males and females and is therefore most useful for sex determination from teeth?
- Identification: drumstick appendage in neutrophils · ApplicationA blood film from an unidentified body shows neutrophils with a small drumstick-shaped nuclear projection. What does this appendage represent?
- Identification: postmortem change in body length · ApplicationA pathologist measures a fresh cadaver lying supine, after rigor has passed off, as 170 cm. How does this compare with the person's living standing height?
- Identification: racial features of hair · ApplicationHair found at a scene is coarse, straight and black, with a round cross-section and abundant, evenly distributed pigment. Which racial group is it most typical of?
- Identification: hair growth rate · ApplicationA scalp hair segment 6 cm long, cut at the root, is tested for arsenic along its length to find when exposure occurred. Taking the usual rate of scalp hair growth, how…
- Identification: ovotesticular disorder of sex development · ApplicationGonadal biopsy in a patient with ambiguous genitalia shows ovarian tissue with follicles in one part and testicular tissue with seminiferous tubules in another. What is…
- Identification: female pseudohermaphroditism · Multi-stepA newborn with a 46,XX karyotype has ambiguous genitalia, ovaries and a uterus on ultrasound, and develops a salt-losing crisis in the second week. Which enzyme deficie…
- Identification: Teichmann's test · ApplicationA suspected dried bloodstain is heated on a slide with a crystal of sodium chloride and glacial acetic acid. Crystals form that are seen under the microscope. Which tes…
- Identification: FDI dental notation · ApplicationIn the FDI two-digit system used to record teeth in dental identification, which tooth is numbered 36?
- Identification: cementum annulation · Multi-stepIn a sectioned single-rooted tooth of an adult, the annual incremental lines in the cementum are counted. How is the age at death then calculated?
- Identification: meaning of the paternity index · Multi-stepA DNA report on an alleged father gives a combined paternity index of 5000. How should this be interpreted?
- Identification: limits of Y-STR matches · Multi-stepA Y-chromosome STR profile from a stain at a crime scene matches the suspect. The suspect has a father and three brothers. What follows?
- Identification: radiological comparison of the frontal sinus · ApplicationIn a charred, unidentified body with an intact skull, an antemortem skull radiograph of a missing man is available. Which structure on the radiograph is most useful for…
- Identification · ApplicationWhat comparison can help identify remains?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat prior finding may assist radiologic identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhich method can provide high-confidence biological identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat is a valuable ante-mortem comparator?
- Identification · ApplicationWhich method offers the strongest individualizing value in living persons?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat is the main basis of fingerprint identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat dental feature can help identify an unknown deceased person?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat is anthropometry used for in forensic practice?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat feature makes dental records useful in identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat information can skeletal remains help estimate?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat method offers high individualizing value in a living person?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat property makes fingerprints useful for identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhich feature is generally considered a primary method of identifying an unknown deceased person?
- Identification · ApplicationWhy are fingerprints useful in forensic identification?
- Identification · ApplicationWhich comparison can provide a primary identification in disaster victim work?
- Identification: dental records · ApplicationWhy can dental records assist in identifying an unknown deceased person?
- Identification · ApplicationWhy are dental restorations valuable in identifying unknown remains?
- Identification · ApplicationWhat is the limitation of visual identification after severe trauma or decomposition?
Thanatology72
- Thanatology · ApplicationInstantaneous muscle stiffening at the moment of death that fixes the last act, for example grasping weeds in drowning, is called:
- Thanatology · ApplicationIn which muscles is rigor mortis first noticed?
- Thanatology · ApplicationCadaveric spasm differs from rigor mortis because it:
- Thanatology · ApplicationTache noire is a post-mortem sign involving which tissue?
- Thanatology · ApplicationA body is recovered from a waterlogged ditch after several months. The tissues are grey-white, greasy and waxy. Which statement best describes this change?
- Thanatology · Multi-stepA pathologist wants to estimate time since death in the first day or two using a biochemical measurement. Which is the most useful?
- Thanatology · Multi-stepA comatose ventilated patient has no response to pain, absent pupillary, corneal and oculocephalic reflexes, and no respiratory effort during an apnoea test, after reve…
- Thanatology: post-mortem staining · ApplicationA body is found lying face-up in a field. Post-mortem lividity is present on the front of the body and the face, and is fixed. What can be concluded?
- Thanatology: algor mortis calculation · Multi-stepA body is found in a closed room and the rectal temperature is recorded as 80.4 degrees F. The normal body temperature is taken as 98.4 degrees F, and the Glaister equa…
- Thanatology: mechanism of rigor mortis · ApplicationA forensic student asks why muscles stiffen a few hours after death. Which biochemical event is mainly responsible for rigor mortis?
- Thanatology: cold stiffening · ApplicationA mountaineer's body is recovered from a glacier crevasse and all joints feel rigid. Which feature best suggests cold stiffening rather than rigor mortis?
- Thanatology: factors affecting rigor · ApplicationTwo bodies are examined in the same hour after death. Which body would be expected to show delayed onset and prolonged duration of rigor mortis?
- Thanatology: post-mortem caloricity · ApplicationA rectal temperature taken soon after death is higher than the body temperature just before death. In which cause of death is this post-mortem rise in temperature most…
- Thanatology: marbling in putrefaction · ApplicationA body shows branching greenish-black lines over the shoulders and abdomen about two days after death in a warm climate. What is the cause of this marbling?
- Thanatology: Casper's dictum · Multi-stepA body is exhumed after 16 weeks of burial in soil. Using Casper's dictum, which one correctly describes the degree of decomposition seen?
- Thanatology: forensic entomology · ApplicationA decomposed body is found outdoors about five days after death. An entomologist wants a minimum estimate of the post-mortem interval. Which evidence is most useful?
- Thanatology: retinal changes after death · ApplicationA doctor examines the fundus of a patient soon after suspected cardiac arrest and sees the retinal blood columns broken into segments, like a train of boxcars. What doe…
- Thanatology: spinal reflexes in brain death · ApplicationA ventilated patient is being assessed for brain stem death. The patient has absent pupillary and corneal reflexes and no spontaneous breathing, but the knee jerk can b…
- Thanatology: autopsy for air embolism · ApplicationAt autopsy of a woman who collapsed after a criminal abortion, venous air embolism is suspected. What is the correct way to demonstrate air in the heart?
- Thanatology: cause, mode and manner of death · ApplicationA man dies of exsanguination after a stab wound to the femoral artery inflicted in a fight. Which statement correctly classifies this death?
- Thanatology: sudden infant death · ApplicationA paediatrician counsels the parents of a healthy newborn about reducing the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Which advice is most appropriate?
- Thanatology: inquest in India · ApplicationA 24-year-old woman is found hanging at her marital home 3 years after her marriage, and the family alleges dowry harassment. Who conducts the inquest in this case?
- Thanatology: contact pallor · ApplicationA body found supine shows purple discolouration over the back but pale areas over the shoulder blades and buttocks. What explains the pale areas?
- Thanatology: lividity in cold exposure · ApplicationA 30-year-old homeless man is found dead on a winter morning in an open field after a night of sub-zero temperatures. The dependent areas show bright pink-red post-mort…
- Thanatology: post-mortem gastric digestion artefact · Multi-stepAt autopsy of a man who died after a head injury, the fundus of the stomach and lower oesophagus are soft, brownish-black and thinned, with a perforation allowing gastr…
- Thanatology: post-mortem biochemistry in diabetic ketoacidosis · Multi-stepA 24-year-old known type 1 diabetic is found dead at home. Autopsy shows no specific lesion. Post-mortem blood glucose is low-normal. Which specimen and test would best…
- Thanatology: stomach contents and time of death · Multi-stepAt autopsy a man's stomach contains partly digested rice and lentils. Police ask whether this proves he died about 2 hours after his meal. Which statement is most accur…
- Thanatology: preservation of the body by poison · ApplicationA body exhumed 18 months after burial, on suspicion of poisoning, is found remarkably well preserved, with intact hair, nails and organs, while neighbouring graves show…
- Thanatology: distribution of lividity in suspension · ApplicationA man is found dead, completely suspended by a ligature, and is cut down about 10 hours later. Where would the fixed lividity be expected to appear if the body was left…
- Thanatology: underlying cause of death on the certificate · Multi-stepA 62-year-old man falls from a ladder, develops an acute subdural haematoma, undergoes craniotomy and dies on day 9 of bronchopneumonia. When filling Part I of the medi…
- Thanatology: post-mortem clot versus thrombus · ApplicationAt autopsy of a woman who died suddenly, a clot in the right ventricle is soft, rubbery, glistening and moulded to the chamber, with a yellow upper layer over a dark re…
- Thanatology: autopsy in sudden death from pulmonary embolism · Multi-stepA 40-year-old woman dies suddenly on the sixth day after a pelvic operation. Autopsy shows a saddle embolus in the pulmonary trunk. To identify the source, which autops…
- Thanatology: somatic and molecular death · ApplicationA 30-year-old man is declared dead after a cardiac arrest, with no pulse, respiration or reflexes. Two hours later the transplant coordinator notes that his corneas and…
- Thanatology: inquiry in custodial death · ApplicationA 28-year-old man arrested for theft dies on the second night in a police lock-up, and his family alleges assault. Which inquiry is mandatory in this situation?
- Thanatology: factors affecting body cooling · ApplicationTwo bodies are found in the same room six hours after death. Body A is an obese man wrapped in a quilt, and body B is a thin man lying naked on a tile floor. Which stat…
- Thanatology: registration of deaths · ApplicationA family realises that the death of their father 40 days ago was never registered. Under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, what is required to register it now?
- Thanatology: preservation of viscera · ApplicationStomach and intestines are to be sent to the laboratory for analysis in a suspected case of ethanol poisoning. Which preservative should be avoided?
- Thanatology: chain of causation · ApplicationA man stabbed in the abdomen survives a laparotomy but dies two weeks later of hospital-acquired septicaemia spread from the wound. On what principle is the assailant s…
- Thanatology: shifting of hypostasis · Multi-stepAt autopsy a body lying supine shows lividity on the back that does not blanch on pressure, and a second, paler patch on the front of the trunk that does blanch. What d…
- Thanatology: sudden death in Marfan syndrome · Multi-stepA tall 24-year-old man with long limbs and arachnodactyly collapses with tearing chest pain and dies. Autopsy shows haemopericardium from an intimal tear in the ascendi…
- Thanatology: death in status asthmaticus · Multi-stepA young asthmatic dies during an acute attack. The lungs are voluminous and do not collapse, and the bronchi contain tenacious mucus plugs. Which microscopic finding is…
- Thanatology: sudden death in young athletes · Multi-stepA 17-year-old collapses and dies during a sprint. The heart is otherwise normal, but the left coronary artery arises from the right aortic sinus and passes between the…
- Thanatology: meningococcal sudden death · ApplicationA 12-year-old boy dies within 12 hours of fever and a purpuric rash. Autopsy shows bilateral adrenal haemorrhage. Which condition is this?
- Thanatology: resuscitation artefacts · ApplicationAn elderly man dies despite 25 minutes of vigorous chest compressions. At autopsy there are fractures of several anterior ribs along the midclavicular line with no brui…
- Thanatology: livid area versus bruise · Multi-stepA forensic pathologist finds a purple area on the back of a body lying supine and must decide whether it is hypostasis or a bruise. Which finding on incising the area i…
- Thanatology: post-mortem redistribution of drugs · ApplicationAt autopsy of a man who collapsed after a suspected drug overdose, the toxicologist asks which blood sample will give the most dependable drug concentration. Heart bloo…
- Thanatology: rigor of the heart · Multi-stepAt autopsy about 6 hours after death, a man killed in an assault shows a firm, thick-walled left ventricle with an empty cavity. The heart weight is normal and the coro…
- Thanatology: commotio cordis · Multi-stepA 15-year-old boy is hit on the chest by a hard cricket ball and collapses within seconds. Resuscitation fails. At autopsy there is no bruise of the chest wall, no rib…
- Thanatology: molecular autopsy · Multi-stepA 16-year-old girl collapses and dies at the edge of a swimming pool. A sister had earlier fainted during exercise. Autopsy shows a structurally normal heart, no water…
- Thanatology: post-mortem formation of ethanol · Multi-stepA decomposed body is recovered from a ditch after five days and the blood ethanol is 80 mg/dL. There is no history of drinking. Which finding most strongly suggests tha…
- Thanatology: sudden unexpected death in epilepsy · ApplicationA 24-year-old man with epilepsy is found dead, lying prone in bed with a bitten tongue. Autopsy shows no cause: the brain and heart are unremarkable and drug levels of…
- Thanatology: supravital reaction · ApplicationA man is pronounced dead after a cardiac arrest. A short time later the muscles of his forearm still contract when a direct electrical stimulus is applied to them. How…
- Thanatology: postmortem foetal extrusion · ApplicationA bloated, decomposing body of a woman who died near term is found with the foetus lying partly outside the vagina between her thighs. There was no history of labour or…
- Thanatology: purge fluid · ApplicationA bloated, greenish body is recovered from a pond after three days. Dark, foul-smelling, blood-stained fluid is running from the mouth and nostrils. No injuries are fou…
- Thanatology: forensic entomology late colonisers · ApplicationA body left outdoors in a hot, dry place has passed through the fresh and bloated stages, and only dried skin, cartilage and hair remain. Which insects are typically fe…
- Thanatology: persistent vegetative state · ApplicationThree months after a cardiac arrest, a patient lies with eyes open, shows sleep-wake cycles, breathes spontaneously and grimaces to pain, but shows no awareness of self…
- Thanatology: locked-in syndrome · Multi-stepAfter a basilar artery occlusion, a patient has quadriplegia and cannot speak, but moves his eyes vertically and blinks on command, and the EEG shows a normal waking pa…
- Thanatology: initial plateau of body cooling · Multi-stepIn a healthy adult found soon after death, the rectal temperature is almost unchanged for the first hour or two, then falls steadily. What best explains this early plat…
- Thanatology: staining for early myocardial infarct · Multi-stepA man dies suddenly about six hours after the onset of chest pain, and the myocardium looks normal to the naked eye. Which simple bench test can show an early infarct?
- Thanatology: postmortem diagnosis of anaphylaxis · Multi-stepA man dies within 20 minutes of a wasp sting. Autopsy shows laryngeal oedema and hyperinflated lungs but no other cause of death. Which postmortem blood test best suppo…
- Thanatology: lividity colour in methaemoglobin-forming poisons · ApplicationA farm labourer is found dead after drinking an unlabelled liquid. The dependent areas show chocolate-brown postmortem staining and the blood is also brown. Which type…
- Thanatology: respirator brain · ApplicationA man kept on a ventilator for several days after brain stem death is autopsied. The brain is soft and friable and disintegrates when removed, although the rest of the…
- Thanatology: maceration of the foetus · Multi-stepA stillborn infant delivered several days after intrauterine death has peeling skin with red-brown fluid blisters, soft tissues and overlapping of the skull bones on a…
- Thanatology: postmortem imaging · ApplicationIn a death from a firearm injury, what is the main advantage of performing postmortem CT before the conventional autopsy?
- Thanatology: control soil at exhumation · ApplicationA body is exhumed on suspicion of metallic poisoning. Why must samples of soil around the coffin be collected as well as the viscera?
- Thanatology: sudden cardiac death in a young athlete · ApplicationA 19-year-old athlete collapses and dies during training. Autopsy shows a heavy heart with asymmetric thickening of the septum, and microscopy shows haphazardly arrange…
- Thanatology: sudden death with a negative gross autopsy · ApplicationA 25-year-old man dies suddenly at rest. The heart, brain and lungs look normal on gross examination. What should the pathologist do before giving the cause of death?
- Thanatology: gas-forming organism in putrefaction · ApplicationAt autopsy of a decomposing body the liver is spongy with gas bubbles, giving a foamy appearance on cutting. Which organism is mainly responsible for this gas formation?
- Thanatology · ApplicationWhich change confirms that postmortem lividity has become fixed?
- Thanatology · ApplicationWhich environment most favours adipocere formation?
- Thanatology · ApplicationWhich finding is most useful when estimating whether rigor mortis has begun to pass off?
- Thanatology · ApplicationWhich condition most slows putrefaction of a body?
Asphyxial deaths61
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationIn a typical case of hanging, the ligature mark is usually:
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhich finding is typical of an ante-mortem hanging?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationA person is found dead after a stampede in a crowd, with a swollen cyanosed face, conjunctival petechiae and congestion above the chest, while the skin below the chest…
- Asphyxial deaths · Multi-stepA body is recovered from a canal and the police ask whether the man was alive when he entered the water. Which finding best supports ante-mortem drowning?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationA person dies in a crowd crush. The face, neck and upper chest are deeply congested and cyanosed with numerous petechiae, sharply demarcated from the rest of the body.…
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationA woman is found dead with fingernail marks over the neck, petechiae on the face and conjunctivae, and a fractured greater horn of the hyoid bone. What type of death is…
- Asphyxial deaths: classification of anoxia · ApplicationA 60-year-old man dies suddenly of massive pulmonary embolism. In the classification of anoxia used in forensic medicine, which type best describes the tissue oxygen la…
- Asphyxial deaths: stages of asphyxia · ApplicationA man is rescued during an attempted suicide by hanging. He describes deep, laboured breathing first, followed by violent muscular spasms and loss of consciousness. The…
- Asphyxial deaths: petechiae in hanging · Multi-stepAt autopsy of a man found hanging with his full body weight suspended, the face is pale and petechial haemorrhages are absent from the conjunctivae and face. Which expl…
- Asphyxial deaths: overlaying · ApplicationA 3-month-old infant is found dead in the morning in the bed of the parents, one of whom had consumed alcohol the previous night. There are no injuries and the nose and…
- Asphyxial deaths: judicial hanging · ApplicationIn judicial hanging with a long drop, the usual mechanism of death is:
- Asphyxial deaths: partial hanging · ApplicationA young woman is found dead kneeling by a door with a dupatta tied to the handle and around her neck, her knees and toes touching the floor. This is best classified as:
- Asphyxial deaths: saliva dribbling in hanging · ApplicationAt scene inspection of a hanging body, a stream of saliva is seen running from the angle of the mouth down the chin and chest. This finding indicates:
- Asphyxial deaths: soft ligature · ApplicationA man is found hanging from a ceiling fan by a broad folded cotton towel. The neck shows only a faint, pale, broad mark. What is the most appropriate inference?
- Asphyxial deaths: staged hanging after death · Multi-stepA body is found hanging by a rope. Post-mortem lividity is fixed over the back, buttocks and calves, the ligature mark is pale with no ecchymosis or other vital reactio…
- Asphyxial deaths: manner in ligature strangulation · ApplicationA woman is found dead with a horizontal, complete, deep furrow encircling the neck at the level of the thyroid cartilage and a cord lying beside the body. Considering h…
- Asphyxial deaths: suicidal ligature strangulation · Multi-stepA man is found dead in a room locked from inside. A cord is wound three times around the neck and tied with a firm knot, the neck mark is horizontal, and there are no d…
- Asphyxial deaths: accidental strangulation · ApplicationA young woman riding pillion on a two-wheeler is found dead after her long scarf was caught in the rear wheel. Examination shows a ligature mark on the neck and signs o…
- Asphyxial deaths: burking · ApplicationAn elderly intoxicated vagrant is found dead. The assailant had knelt on the victim's chest while closing the nose and mouth with a hand. Which combination describes th…
- Asphyxial deaths: smothering signs · ApplicationAn elderly bedridden man is found dead. His face shows small abrasions around the nostrils and bruising on the inner surfaces of the lips with pressure marks from the t…
- Asphyxial deaths: cafe coronary · ApplicationA 55-year-old man who had been drinking at a restaurant suddenly collapses while eating and dies before help arrives; it is first thought to be a heart attack. At autop…
- Asphyxial deaths: positional asphyxia · Multi-stepA heavily intoxicated man is found dead, wedged head-down in a narrow gap between a bed and a wall, with his chest compressed. There are no neck marks, no injuries and…
- Asphyxial deaths: plastic bag suffocation · Multi-stepA 70-year-old woman with terminal cancer is found dead with a plastic bag over her head tied loosely at the neck, with no signs of struggle. Autopsy shows only non-spec…
- Asphyxial deaths: autoerotic asphyxia · ApplicationA 24-year-old man is found dead in a locked room, partially suspended by a padded ligature with a towel under the knot. Pornographic material and a mirror are nearby. T…
- Asphyxial deaths: neck dissection technique · Multi-stepA suspected strangulation case is being autopsied. At what stage and how should the neck be dissected to avoid artefacts?
- Asphyxial deaths: hyoid fracture and age · ApplicationA 19-year-old woman is strangled manually, yet the hyoid bone is intact at autopsy. What best explains this?
- Asphyxial deaths: immersion syndrome · ApplicationA young man who had been drinking jumps into very cold water and is found dead within moments with no struggle. What is the proposed mechanism of death?
- Asphyxial deaths: froth in drowning · ApplicationA body recovered from a pond shows froth at the mouth and nostrils. Which description is typical of drowning froth?
- Asphyxial deaths: fresh water drowning physiology · Multi-stepA child is retrieved from a freshwater well after drowning. Which sequence best explains death in this child?
- Asphyxial deaths: Gettler's test · ApplicationThe Gettler test for drowning compares blood chloride between the two sides of the heart. In fresh water drowning the expected finding is:
- Asphyxial deaths: dry drowning · ApplicationA man pulled from a swimming pool shows cyanosis and signs of asphyxia, yet the lungs contain very little water and the stomach is nearly empty. What is the most likely…
- Asphyxial deaths: secondary drowning management · Multi-stepA 6-year-old is pulled out of a pool, coughs, and appears well. Six hours later she has breathlessness, cyanosis, bilateral crepitations and diffuse infiltrates on ches…
- Asphyxial deaths: emphysema aquosum · ApplicationAt autopsy of a drowned person the lungs are ballooned, overlapping the heart, doughy and show rib impressions. This is termed:
- Asphyxial deaths: floating of drowned body · Multi-stepA drowned man's body sinks soon after entering warm river water but is found floating on day 3. Which explanation is correct?
- Asphyxial deaths: foreign material in airway · Multi-stepA body recovered from a river has fine sand and weed fragments in the bronchioles and in the stomach and duodenum. What is the best inference?
- Asphyxial deaths: washerwoman skin changes · ApplicationA body shows bleached, wrinkled skin of the palms and soles resembling the hands of a washerwoman. What does this finding indicate?
- Asphyxial deaths: sewer gas deaths · Multi-stepA worker collapses after entering a deep septic tank; a colleague climbs in to rescue him and also collapses. Sewer gas with hydrogen sulphide is suspected. What is the…
- Asphyxial deaths: environmental suffocation · Multi-stepA 4-year-old is found dead inside a closed, airtight old refrigerator with no injuries. By which mechanism did death occur?
- Asphyxial deaths: near-hanging management · Multi-stepA 30-year-old man is cut down from a failed hanging attempt, has GCS 8, noisy breathing and bruising of the neck. What is the first priority?
- Asphyxial deaths: infant choking first aid · ApplicationAn 8-month-old infant is choking on a peanut, is conscious but cannot cry or cough effectively. What is the recommended first-aid manoeuvre?
- Asphyxial deaths: gas in a disused well · Multi-stepA worker is lowered into a disused well and collapses. A lighted candle lowered earlier was extinguished before reaching the bottom. Which gas is most likely responsible?
- Asphyxial deaths: complication after strangulation · Multi-stepA woman survives manual strangulation and is discharged well, but two days later develops right hemiparesis and aphasia. What is the most likely cause?
- Asphyxial deaths: selective neuronal vulnerability · ApplicationIn a patient who survives cardiac arrest but dies after a week in coma, which neurons show the earliest and most selective damage to global hypoxia?
- Asphyxial deaths: delayed sequelae of carbon monoxide · Multi-stepA man is rescued from a smoke-filled room and recovers fully. Two weeks later he becomes confused, apathetic and incontinent, with parkinsonian rigidity. MRI shows symm…
- Asphyxial deaths: garrotting · ApplicationA man is attacked from behind in a lane. A cord is thrown around his neck and tightened by twisting it with a short stick. He dies of strangulation. What is this form o…
- Asphyxial deaths: neck hold by forearm · ApplicationA robber grips the neck of a victim from behind in the crook of his elbow. The victim loses consciousness within seconds and recovers when released. There is no ligatur…
- Asphyxial deaths: seawater versus freshwater drowning · ApplicationCompared with drowning in freshwater, which change in the blood is expected after inhalation of a large volume of seawater?
- Asphyxial deaths: treatment to shorten HbCO half-life · ApplicationA woman rescued from a house filled with fumes from a charcoal stove has a markedly raised carboxyhaemoglobin level. Which treatment shortens the carboxyhaemoglobin hal…
- Asphyxial deaths: carbon monoxide and the dissociation curve · Multi-stepWhy is carbon monoxide poisoning more dangerous than an equal fall in haemoglobin from anaemia, even though the oxygen content may be reduced to the same extent?
- Asphyxial deaths: decompression sickness · ApplicationA commercial diver surfaces quickly from a deep dive. Thirty minutes later he has severe pain in the knees and shoulders and itching of the skin. What is the underlying…
- Asphyxial deaths: arterial gas embolism in divers · Multi-stepA trainee scuba diver panics and rises rapidly to the surface while holding his breath. On reaching the surface he collapses with right hemiparesis and aphasia. What is…
- Asphyxial deaths: cold-water submersion in children · ApplicationA 4-year-old is pulled from a frozen pond after being under the ice for about 25 minutes. She has no pulse and her pupils are fixed and dilated. Why should resuscitatio…
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhich finding can support an asphyxial mechanism in manual strangulation when interpreted with other evidence?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationHow is a typical ligature mark in complete hanging often oriented?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhich neck finding is more typical of hanging than manual strangulation?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhat is the primary purpose of documenting petechial haemorrhages in suspected asphyxial death?
- Asphyxial deaths: hanging · ApplicationWhich ligature-mark pattern more strongly supports hanging than ligature strangulation?
- Asphyxial deaths: drowning · ApplicationWhat is the most appropriate forensic conclusion when froth is found at the mouth and nostrils of a body recovered from water?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhy is external neck examination alone insufficient to diagnose strangulation?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhat mechanism causes traumatic asphyxia after chest compression?
- Asphyxial deaths · ApplicationWhich finding is most consistent with postmortem submersion rather than drowning?
Injuries50
- Injuries · ApplicationA wound caused by blunt force that has irregular margins with bridging strands of tissue in the depths is a:
- Injuries · ApplicationWhich feature distinguishes an incised wound from a lacerated wound?
- Injuries · ApplicationA bluish discoloured area is seen on the back of a body. Which finding on incision and washing indicates a bruise rather than post-mortem hypostasis?
- Injuries · ApplicationA bruise on a child's arm shows a yellowish colour at its periphery. Which statement about ageing bruises is most accurate?
- Injuries · ApplicationA farmer struck by lightning has a fern-like reddish skin pattern across the chest. This is:
- Injuries · Multi-stepA charred body is brought from a house fire. Which combination best indicates that the person was alive when the fire started?
- Injuries · ApplicationA six-month-old infant with irritability and drowsiness has no external signs of injury but has bilateral retinal haemorrhages and subdural haemorrhage. Which diagnosis…
- Injuries: burns · ApplicationA charred body is found in a house fire with the arms and legs flexed and the fists clenched. This 'pugilistic attitude' is explained by:
- Injuries: patterned abrasion · ApplicationA pedestrian run over by a truck has a faint brown, parchment-like area on the abdomen that reproduces a repeating pattern of parallel grooves and ridges. Which type of…
- Injuries: sliding abrasion direction · ApplicationA motorcyclist skids along a tarred road. A long graze on his forearm shows a smooth start and, at one end, heaped-up shreds of epidermis. What do the heaped shreds ind…
- Injuries: railway-track bruise · ApplicationA man beaten with a lathi has two parallel linear bruises about 2 cm apart on his back, with a pale, unbruised strip between them. What explains the central pallor?
- Injuries: ectopic bruise · ApplicationA man struck on the forehead with a blunt object develops a black eye on the same side 24 hours later. Skull radiographs and CT show no fracture, and the orbit was not…
- Injuries: extradural haematoma · Multi-stepA 20-year-old cricketer is hit on the left temple by a ball, loses consciousness briefly and recovers, then becomes drowsy 3 hours later with a dilated left pupil. CT s…
- Injuries: subdural haematoma in the elderly · ApplicationA 70-year-old chronic alcoholic recalls only a minor fall two weeks ago and now has headache and confusion. CT shows a crescentic collection over the convexity. Why is…
- Injuries: diffuse axonal injury · Multi-stepA 25-year-old motorcyclist is deeply unconscious from the moment of a high-speed crash. CT shows no mass lesion, and MRI later shows small haemorrhagic foci in the corp…
- Injuries: contrecoup contusion · Multi-stepWhich of the following circumstances is most likely to produce contrecoup contusions of the frontal and temporal poles?
- Injuries: hinge fracture of the skull base · ApplicationA scooter rider struck from the side by a car has a fracture running transversely across the middle cranial fossa through the sella turcica, dividing the skull base int…
- Injuries: bumper fracture · Multi-stepA pedestrian struck from the right by a car has a transverse fracture of the right tibia with a triangular wedge of bone separated from the shaft. The base of the wedge…
- Injuries: blast injury · ApplicationA survivor of a bomb explosion in a closed room has ear pain, hearing loss, breathlessness and frothy blood-stained sputum, but no external wounds. Which type of blast…
- Injuries: low-voltage electrocution · ApplicationAn electrician who touched a live 230 V wire with wet hands is found dead. The only external finding is a small pale crater-like mark on the palm. What is the most like…
- Injuries: burns, rule of nines · Multi-stepAn adult sustains flame burns involving the whole of the front of the trunk, the whole of the left lower limb and the whole of the left upper limb. Using the rule of ni…
- Injuries: antemortem versus postmortem burns · ApplicationA blister on a burnt body shows a surrounding red, inflamed zone, a reddened base and protein-rich fluid. What does this indicate?
- Injuries: hypothermia, Wischnewski spots · ApplicationAn elderly man is found dead in a cold hill hut, partially undressed and huddled in a corner. At autopsy, the gastric mucosa shows multiple small dark brown erosions. T…
- Injuries: Langer lines and gaping · ApplicationTwo incised wounds of equal length and depth are made by the same knife, one running along and one running across the cleavage (Langer) lines of the skin. Which stateme…
- Injuries: fat embolism at autopsy · Multi-stepA 32-year-old man with a fractured femoral shaft collapses on the third day and dies with petechiae over the chest and conjunctivae. Fat embolism is suspected. Which la…
- Injuries: crush syndrome · Multi-stepA man trapped for 8 hours under a collapsed wall has both thighs compressed but is conscious and haemodynamically stable. Rescuers can see him. What is the most importa…
- Injuries: child physical abuse, fractures · ApplicationA 4-month-old infant is irritable with swelling of the right thigh. The history from the parents is vague. A skeletal survey shows corner (bucket-handle) fractures of t…
- Injuries: chop wound · ApplicationA man attacked from behind has a deep gaping wound over the shoulder. The underlying bone is cleanly cut through, and the skin margins are abraded and bruised. Which ty…
- Injuries: ageing with haemosiderin · Multi-stepA bruise on the thigh of a man who died of a head injury shows haemosiderin-laden macrophages on a Perls' Prussian blue stain. What does this finding suggest about that…
- Injuries: histology of the electrical mark · Multi-stepA farm worker is found dead beside a faulty pump. On his fingertip is a small, pale, crater-like lesion with a raised rim. Which microscopic finding would best support…
- Injuries: scald versus flame burn · ApplicationA toddler is brought with erythema and blisters over the chest and arm after a hot tea kettle fell on him. Which finding favours a scald over a flame burn?
- Injuries: stab wound depth · Multi-stepA man is stabbed once in the abdomen. The knife blade recovered is 9 cm long, but the wound track in the abdomen measures 12 cm. Which is the most likely explanation?
- Injuries: judicial hanging · ApplicationA prisoner is executed by long-drop judicial hanging. Which neck finding is expected at autopsy compared with usual suicidal hanging?
- Injuries: traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage · Multi-stepA young man collapses within minutes of a slap on the side of the neck below the ear during a quarrel. Autopsy shows no skull fracture and no aneurysm, but there is mas…
- Injuries: spectacle haematoma · Multi-stepA man is brought after a fall from a bike. Over the next 6 hours he develops bilateral periorbital ecchymosis with subconjunctival haemorrhage whose posterior limit can…
- Injuries: Puppe's rule · Multi-stepA skull shows two linear fractures. Fracture line B stops where it meets fracture line A. According to Puppe's rule, what is the sequence?
- Injuries: gunshot residue testing · Multi-stepHand swabs from a man suspected of firing a country-made pistol are positive on the old dermal nitrate (paraffin) test. Why is this result alone unreliable?
- Injuries: Dupuytren classification of burns · ApplicationA worker's forearm burn has destroyed the whole thickness of the skin and heals with a puckered, contracting scar, but the deep fascia and muscle are intact. In Dupuytr…
- Injuries: whiplash injury of the neck · ApplicationA passenger in a stationary car is struck from behind. The neck is thrown backwards and then forwards, and the patient has neck pain without fracture. Which structure i…
- Injuries: delayed rupture of the spleen · Multi-stepA 19-year-old footballer is kicked on the left flank and discharged after a normal assessment. Nine days later he collapses in shock with haemoperitoneum. What is the l…
- Injuries: burns, Lund and Browder chart · ApplicationA 10-month-old infant has scalds over the face, scalp and neck. Why is the Lund and Browder chart preferred to the rule of nines for estimating the burnt surface area?
- Injuries: torture, falanga · ApplicationA man released from custody walks with pain on the soles, which are swollen and tender with intact skin. He says he was beaten on the feet with a rod while restrained.…
- Injuries: Istanbul Protocol · Multi-stepA doctor examines a detainee alleging torture. A linear scar on the back could have been caused by the described whipping, but many other causes are equally possible. W…
- Injuries: firearm, shotgun range · Multi-stepAt autopsy a shotgun wound of the chest shows a rosette of scattered pellet holes about 7.5 cm across, without blackening or wad marks. Using the rule that pellet sprea…
- Injuries: age of fractures · Multi-stepA 3-year-old with suspected abuse has a rib fracture with a sharp fracture line and no periosteal reaction or callus on radiograph. What does this suggest about the age…
- Injuries: age of abrasion · ApplicationA 25-year-old man has a superficial scraped injury on the forearm covered by a reddish-brown dry scab, with no sign of the scab falling off. What is the approximate age…
- Injuries: firearm ballistics · ApplicationA bullet recovered at autopsy shows spiral striations on its surface. This feature results from which part of the weapon?
- Injuries: road traffic and seat belt injuries · Multi-stepA driver wearing a lap-and-shoulder belt in a head-on collision has a linear bruise across the abdomen and develops peritonitis. What injury pattern should be sought?
- Injuries: culpable homicide · Multi-stepIn a sudden quarrel, a man loses his temper and strikes his neighbour with a stick once, without premeditation, and the neighbour dies of a head injury. Which charge is…
- Injuries: glass wounds · ApplicationA man is brought after falling through a glass window. A wound on his thigh has fairly straight edges, a thin abraded margin and tiny glass fragments in the depth. How…
Medical law49
- Medical law: grievous hurt · ApplicationIn an assault, which of the following injuries is classified as grievous hurt under the Indian criminal law (IPC 320 or the corresponding BNS provision)?
- Medical law: Consumer Protection and free services · Multi-stepA charitable hospital treats some patients free and charges others. A patient who was treated free after a negligent anaesthetic mishap files a consumer complaint. Whic…
- Medical law: Jacob Mathew case · Multi-stepA relative files a criminal complaint alleging that a surgeon caused a patient's death during an operation. According to the Supreme Court in Jacob Mathew v. State of P…
- Medical law: euthanasia in India · ApplicationIn a patient in a permanent vegetative state, which of the following acts remains unlawful in India after the Supreme Court judgments in Aruna Shanbaug (2011) and Commo…
- Medical law: MTP Act · Multi-stepA 22-week pregnant survivor of rape requests termination of pregnancy. Under the MTP (Amendment) Act, 2021, what is the legal requirement?
- Medical law: PCPNDT Act · ApplicationDuring a routine antenatal ultrasound, a couple asks the sonologist to tell them the fetal sex. What is the correct legal position?
- Medical law: Transplantation of Human Organs Act · ApplicationA man wishes to donate a kidney to a friend who is not a near relative, out of affection. What additional step does the Transplantation of Human Organs Act require?
- Medical law: privileged communication · ApplicationIn a divorce case, the court asks a doctor about a diagnosis he made for the husband, who objects. What is the position in Indian law?
- Medical law: inquest in India · ApplicationA 24-year-old woman dies of burns 3 years after marriage. Her family alleges harassment for dowry. Which inquest is most appropriate?
- Medical law: captain of the ship doctrine · ApplicationDuring an operation a scrub nurse miscounts the swabs and one is left in the abdomen. The surgeon directed the team and was in control of the operating theatre. Which d…
- Medical law: contributory negligence · ApplicationA patient with a leg in plaster ignores the surgeon's repeated advice to avoid weight-bearing, walks on it, and has displacement of the fracture. In a suit, which defen…
- Medical law: POCSO reporting · Multi-stepA 15-year-old girl, 14 weeks pregnant, says the sex was consensual with her 17-year-old boyfriend and begs the doctor not to tell anyone. What is the doctor's legal dut…
- Medical law: scope of consent · Multi-stepA 44-year-old woman consents to a diagnostic laparoscopy for infertility. Under anaesthesia the surgeon finds fibroids and performs a hysterectomy, with no life-threate…
- Medical law: standards of proof · ApplicationA doctor faces a compensation claim in a consumer forum and a criminal prosecution for the same incident. Which standard of proof applies in each?
- Medical law: leading questions in court · ApplicationA doctor is giving evidence in a trial. During which stage of examination are leading questions generally permitted without the court's special permission?
- Medical law: hostile witness · ApplicationA doctor called by the prosecution departs from his earlier recorded statement in court. What may the prosecutor do, with the court's permission?
- Medical law: examination of an arrested person · Multi-stepPolice produce a man arrested for assault and ask a registered medical practitioner to examine him. He refuses, saying he has not consented. What does the law allow?
- Medical law: powers of magistrates · ApplicationA Judicial Magistrate First Class convicts a man of an offence punishable with up to ten years. What is the maximum imprisonment this magistrate may award?
- Medical law: Transplantation of Human Organs Act · Multi-stepUnder the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, a board certifies brain-stem death in a ventilated road accident victim before organs are removed. Which doctor must not…
- Medical law: Telemedicine Practice Guidelines · Multi-stepA registered doctor holds a first teleconsultation by telephone with a new adult patient and wishes to prescribe. Under the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020, which…
- Medical law: abandonment of the patient · ApplicationAfter operating on a patient who developed a wound infection, a surgeon leaves for a holiday without informing the patient or arranging a substitute, and the patient de…
- Medical law: advertising by doctors · ApplicationA doctor distributes pamphlets and posts newspaper advertisements claiming a hundred percent cure, with testimonials from patients. How is this regarded?
- Medical law: VP Shantha judgment · ApplicationA patient treated for a fee at a private nursing home files a consumer complaint for negligence, and the doctor argues that medical services are exempt. What did the Su…
- Medical law: false medical certificate · ApplicationA friend of a doctor asks for a sickness certificate with backdated rest days although he was never examined. What is the correct position?
- Medical law: expert witness · ApplicationIn court, an autopsy surgeon first describes the injuries he saw and then says the death was due to head injury. How is his testimony classified?
- Medical law: BNS, BNSS and BSA · Multi-stepA murder was committed on 10 June 2024 and the accused is being tried in 2025. Which law applies to the charge?
- Medical law: Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 · Multi-stepA hospital app collected patient data for booking appointments and now wants to use the same data for unrelated advertising. What does the Digital Personal Data Protect…
- Medical law: Good Samaritan · ApplicationA passer-by brings a road accident victim to a hospital. The staff insist he fill in forms and stay until police arrive. What is the legal position?
- Medical law: Clinical Establishments Act 2010 · ApplicationA private nursing home refuses to treat a road accident victim in shock until a deposit is paid. Which duty under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulati…
- Medical law: consent, Samira Kohli · Multi-stepA woman consents to diagnostic laparoscopy. While she is under general anaesthesia the surgeon finds uterine disease and removes the uterus, without any emergency. What…
- Medical law: complaints against doctors · ApplicationA patient wishes to file a complaint of professional misconduct against a doctor. Under the National Medical Commission Act 2019, where should the complaint first be ma…
- Medical law: consent in minors · ApplicationA 16-year-old girl needs an elective appendicectomy and has come alone. Whose consent is legally required for surgery?
- Medical law: medicolegal cases · ApplicationA man with a suspected organophosphate poisoning is brought to a casualty department by neighbours. What is the doctor's duty regarding police?
- Medical law: violence against healthcare workers · Multi-stepDuring a declared epidemic, a mob assaults a resident doctor in a government hospital. Under the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act 2020, how is the offence treated?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of maintaining complete medical records?
- Medical law · ApplicationA court requires a clinician to appear or bring specified records; what legal document has been issued?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is negligence in clinical practice?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of professional indemnity coverage?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat capacity-related question is central when assessing whether an adult can provide valid consent to a procedure?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhen may emergency treatment proceed without prior consent in an unconscious patient?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the most important element of valid informed consent for a competent adult?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhen may confidentiality be ethically breached without patient permission?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the primary purpose of a medicolegal postmortem examination?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhy is contemporaneous documentation important in medicolegal practice?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the appropriate response to a valid court order for medical records?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is a dying declaration in medicolegal practice?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhy should a clinician document a patient's refusal of recommended care?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat makes a medicolegal medical record defensible?
- Medical law · ApplicationWhat is the legal role of an expert witness?
Injuries and wounds43
- Injuries and wounds: neonatal scalp swellings · Multi-stepA newborn has a scalp swelling noticed some hours after delivery. It increases gradually, is confined to the area of one parietal bone and does not cross the suture lin…
- Injuries and wounds: circumferential burns · Multi-stepA patient with a full-thickness circumferential burn of the forearm develops a cold, pale hand with tense swelling and absent Doppler signals. What is the immediate man…
- Injuries and wounds: back-spatter in suicide · ApplicationA man is found dead with an intra-oral gunshot wound and a pistol beside him. Blood and tissue are found inside the muzzle of the weapon. What does this indicate?
- Injuries and wounds: bullet embolism · Multi-stepA man with a thigh gunshot wound and no exit has a bullet seen in the right heart on admission, and on later films it lies in a branch of the pulmonary artery. What is…
- Injuries and wounds: Mongolian spot versus bruise · Multi-stepA 3-month-old Indian infant has bluish-grey patches over the sacrum and buttocks. They are painless and the colour has not changed over several days. What is the most l…
- Injuries and wounds: demonstrating deep bruises · ApplicationIn an alleged custodial beating, the back shows only faint surface marks. Which autopsy step best demonstrates deeper bruising?
- Injuries and wounds: repeated head trauma · ApplicationA retired boxer in his fifties has progressive memory loss, parkinsonism and slurred speech. Brain examination shows perivascular tau deposition and a fenestrated cavum…
- Injuries and wounds: blunt cardiac injury · Multi-stepA driver hits the steering wheel and has sternal tenderness, new ventricular ectopics and a raised troponin. What is the most likely injury?
- Injuries and wounds: flail chest · ApplicationAfter a crush injury to the chest, a man is breathless and one segment of the chest wall moves inward on inspiration. Which injury explains this?
- Injuries and wounds: diaphragmatic rupture · Multi-stepAfter a road accident, a chest radiograph shows a nasogastric tube coiled in the left chest and the stomach bubble above the diaphragm. What is the injury?
- Injuries and wounds: Le Fort fractures · Multi-stepAfter a heavy blow to the face, the entire facial skeleton is separated from the base of the skull and there is cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea. Which fracture is this?
- Injuries and wounds: orbital blow-out fracture · ApplicationA man struck in the eye by a fist has diplopia on looking upwards, enophthalmos and numbness of the cheek. Which injury is likely?
- Injuries and wounds: parry fracture · ApplicationA man raised his forearm to protect his head from a lathi blow and has an isolated transverse fracture of the mid-shaft of the ulna. What is this injury commonly called…
- Injuries and wounds: cardiac tamponade · Multi-stepA man with a stab wound to the left parasternal chest arrives with blood pressure 70/40, distended neck veins and muffled heart sounds. What is the best immediate step?
- Injuries and wounds: acute radiation syndrome · ApplicationAfter a radiation accident, which simple blood test in the first 24 to 48 hours best predicts the severity of exposure?
- Injuries and wounds: cigarette burns · ApplicationA toddler has several round, uniform, punched-out lesions about 8 mm across on the back of the hands, at the same stage of healing. What is the most likely cause?
- Injuries and wounds: fall from height · ApplicationA labourer falls from the fourth floor of a building and lands on both feet. He is unable to bear weight and has back pain. Which fracture is most typically associated…
- Injuries and wounds: heat illness · Multi-stepA construction worker in peak summer becomes confused and then collapses. The temperature of his body core is 41.5 degrees Celsius and his skin is hot and dry with no s…
- Injuries and wounds: choke of a shotgun · ApplicationTwo smooth-bore shotguns of the same bore fire identical cartridges at a target 10 metres away. The pellets from gun A spread over a circle twice as wide as those from…
- Injuries and wounds: Duret haemorrhage · Multi-stepA man hit by a vehicle remains in coma and dies 30 hours after a severe head injury. Autopsy shows a large cerebral swelling, downward displacement of the brainstem, an…
- Injuries and wounds: dicing injuries from glass · ApplicationA driver survives a road collision and has numerous tiny superficial cuts and abrasions in parallel rows over one side of the face. There are no deep gashes. Which mech…
- Injuries and wounds: beta-APP in diffuse axonal injury · Multi-stepA pedestrian struck by a car remains deeply unconscious and dies about 8 hours later. Routine haematoxylin and eosin sections of the brain show no definite lesion. Whic…
- Injuries and wounds: immersion foot · ApplicationShipwreck survivors spend three days in a lifeboat with their feet constantly wet in cold seawater. Their feet become numb, swollen and pale, then red and painful, with…
- Injuries and wounds: autopsy findings in starvation · ApplicationA man dies after weeks of deliberate food deprivation. Which autopsy finding is characteristic?
- Injuries and wounds: keraunoparalysis in lightning · Multi-stepA hiker is struck by lightning and survives. In the first hour both legs are cold, mottled and pulseless, with loss of movement and sensation. Power returns to the limb…
- Injuries and wounds: scald from forced immersion · Multi-stepA 2-year-old has sharply demarcated, uniform-depth burns of both feet and the buttocks in a stocking pattern. A sparing of the central buttocks is noted where the skin…
- Injuries and wounds: expanding bullet · ApplicationA gunshot victim has a 9 mm entrance wound and a ragged 3 cm exit wound. The same weapon with standard military ammunition leaves a small clean exit wound. What differe…
- Injuries and wounds: Waddell's triad · ApplicationA 7-year-old child crossing a road is struck from the side by the front of a moving car and thrown to the ground. In such child pedestrian accidents, the examiner looks…
- Injuries and wounds: suicidal cut throat · ApplicationA man is found dead in a locked bathroom with a razor in his hand and a deep incised wound across the front of his neck. Which finding on the neck best favours suicide…
- Injuries and wounds: heat extradural haematoma · Multi-stepA charred body is recovered from a burnt house. Under the skull vault lies a brownish, friable, honeycombed clot above the dura. There is no skull fracture beneath it,…
- Injuries and wounds: Parkland formula · ApplicationAn adult weighing 70 kg has flame burns over 40 percent of the total body surface area. Using the Parkland formula (4 mL per kg per percent burn) with Ringer lactate, h…
- Injuries and wounds: depth of burn · ApplicationA burn on the forearm of a man trapped in a fire appears white and leathery with thrombosed vessels visible beneath it. The patient feels no pain when it is pricked wit…
- Injuries and wounds: tetanic contraction in electric shock · ApplicationA farm worker grips a faulty live metal handle carrying 230 V alternating current and cannot release it until the supply is switched off by a bystander. Which mechanism…
- Injuries and wounds: lightning triage · ApplicationLightning strikes a group of five hikers. Two are conscious with minor burns, one is confused, and two have no pulse and are not breathing. A single rescuer reaches the…
- Injuries and wounds: paradoxical undressing · ApplicationA mountaineer is found dead from exposure to cold. His jacket and gloves lie scattered beside him although the weather was freezing. Which explanation fits this paradox…
- Injuries and wounds: posterior rib fractures in infants · ApplicationA 3-month-old infant is brought for 'excessive crying'. A skeletal survey reveals multiple healing fractures of the posterior ribs near the costovertebral junction. The…
- Injuries and wounds: aortic rupture in deceleration · Multi-stepA driver is thrown forward in a high-speed head-on collision and dies at the scene. There is no external chest wound, but autopsy shows a transverse tear in the thoraci…
- Injuries and wounds: shored exit wound · Multi-stepA man shot while leaning against a hard wall has a round wound on his back with a ring of abrasion, resembling an entrance. The bullet had passed through his chest and…
- Injuries and wounds: tight contact gunshot over soft tissue · Multi-stepA pistol is pressed firmly against the skin of the abdomen and fired. Where are the soot and unburnt powder mainly found?
- Injuries and wounds: delayed traumatic apoplexy · Multi-stepA normotensive man collapses with a massive intracerebral haemorrhage 10 days after a minor blow to the head. Angiography and autopsy show no aneurysm or vascular malfo…
- Injuries and wounds: handlebar injury · ApplicationA 9-year-old boy falls from his bicycle and the end of the handlebar strikes the upper abdomen. Two days later he has vomiting and epigastric pain, and the amylase is r…
- Injuries and wounds: inhalation injury · ApplicationA man rescued from a closed-room fire has singed nasal hair, soot around the mouth, hoarseness and carbonaceous sputum. He is still talking. What is the best next step?
- Injuries and wounds: antemortem incised wound · ApplicationA man is found dead with an incised wound on the forearm. The edges are gaping and swollen with blood clots in the depth, and there is infiltration of blood into the su…
Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry41
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: abandonment of a child · ApplicationA father leaves his 8-month-old infant in a field intending to abandon it, and the infant is found alive. Which offence is committed?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: antisocial personality · ApplicationA 28-year-old man has a history of truancy, cruelty to animals, repeated fights and lying since age 12. He now repeatedly defrauds others and shows no remorse. What is…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: puerperal psychosis · ApplicationA woman ten days after delivery becomes agitated, hears voices telling her the baby is possessed and smothers the infant. Which condition is most likely?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: absent genital injury · ApplicationA 6-year-old girl reports sexual assault five days earlier. The genital examination is normal. How should this finding be interpreted?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: septic criminal abortion · Multi-stepTwo days after an illegal instrumental abortion, a woman has fever, jaundice, haemoglobinuria, a tender uterus and gas in the uterine wall on imaging. Which organism is…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: sperm staining · ApplicationA smear from a vaginal swab is stained to identify spermatozoa, using a stain that colours the head red and the tail green. What is this stain called?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: signs of recent delivery · ApplicationA woman is examined three days after an alleged concealed delivery. Which combination supports recent childbirth?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: superfecundation · ApplicationA woman has intercourse with two different men within a few days of ovulation and later delivers twins. DNA testing shows that the twins have different fathers. Which t…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: legitimacy of a child · ApplicationA child is born 270 days after the death of the mother's husband, and the mother has not remarried. How does Indian law treat the child's legitimacy?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: unsoundness of mind at trial · Multi-stepAn accused in a murder case becomes disoriented and talks irrationally in court. Psychiatric evaluation finds him of unsound mind and unable to follow the proceedings o…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: sexual masochism · ApplicationA 28-year-old man can reach sexual arousal only when his consenting partner binds, beats or humiliates him. Which paraphilia does this describe?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: voyeurism offence · ApplicationA man secretly records a woman bathing in a private place and circulates the clip online. Which offence, introduced by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 and carried…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: vaginismus · ApplicationOn the wedding night a woman cannot be penetrated because of an involuntary spasm of the perineal and thigh muscles. Examination under anaesthesia shows a normal genita…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: examination of the accused · Multi-stepA man is arrested six hours after an alleged rape and the doctor wishes to show on his body evidence of recent vaginal contact. Which specimen and test is appropriate?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: sole testimony of the prosecutrix · ApplicationIn a rape trial the medical examination finds no genital injury and no semen, but the woman gives a consistent account that the court finds trustworthy. What is the leg…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: past sexual history · ApplicationIn a rape trial the defence asks the examining doctor whether the survivor was habituated to sexual intercourse, to cast doubt on consent. How should this be regarded?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: extent of penetration · ApplicationA woman alleges that a man penetrated her briefly before she pushed him away. No semen or genital injury is found, and he argues that rape needs complete penetration wi…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: oral penetration · ApplicationA man forcibly inserts his penis into the mouth of a woman against her will. Under the definition of rape in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, how is this act classified?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: consent under intoxication · Multi-stepAn acquaintance gives a woman a drink laced with a sedative and has intercourse with her while she is drowsy and unable to resist. He later argues that she did not obje…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: presumption of absence of consent · Multi-stepSexual intercourse is proved in a trial for gang rape, and the survivor states in court that she did not consent. What does the Indian law of evidence direct the court…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: aggravated POCSO offence · ApplicationA ward attendant penetrates a 10-year-old girl admitted to a paediatric ward. Under the POCSO Act 2012, how is the offence categorised?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: sexual harassment at the workplace · Multi-stepA staff nurse at a private nursing home with 14 employees complains in writing that a male co-worker repeatedly makes sexually coloured remarks to her. Under the Sexual…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: dowry death · ApplicationA woman dies of burns at her in-laws' home after repeated dowry demands. Within how many years of marriage must the death occur to be treated as a dowry death under Ind…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: pseudocyesis · ApplicationA 38-year-old woman desperate for a child has had amenorrhoea for seven months, abdominal distension, breast enlargement and sensations of fetal movement. Urine hCG is…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: superfetation · Multi-stepUltrasound shows two fetuses with a marked difference in gestational age, the younger conceived in a later menstrual cycle than the first. What is this phenomenon?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: legal status of ART children · ApplicationA couple conceives with donor gametes through a clinic registered under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act 2021. What is the legal status of the child?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Navtej Singh Johar · ApplicationIn Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India (2018), what did the Supreme Court hold about Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: psychogenic impotence · ApplicationA healthy 26-year-old newly married man with normal hormone levels cannot sustain erection with his wife but has regular nocturnal erections and morning erections. What…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: toluidine blue · ApplicationWhile examining a rape survivor, the doctor paints the posterior fourchette with a blue dye taken up by exposed nuclei, so that microscopic abrasions become visible. Wh…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: sexual harassment · ApplicationA senior male doctor repeatedly makes sexually coloured remarks to a junior woman colleague, who finds them unwelcome. Which offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita d…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Capgras syndrome · ApplicationA 52-year-old man with paranoid schizophrenia insists that his wife has been replaced by an identical impostor, although she looks and sounds exactly the same. Which de…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: shared psychotic disorder · ApplicationA woman with paranoid psychosis convinces her dependent husband that neighbours are poisoning them, and he comes to share her delusions. Together they assault a neighbo…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: dissociative fugue · Multi-stepA bank clerk is found in a distant city weeks after leaving home. He has no memory of who he is or of the journey, has been behaving normally and working there under an…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: automatism · Multi-stepAfter a complex partial seizure, an epileptic man assaults a bystander without any awareness or later memory. Which medicolegal concept describes an act performed witho…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Koro · ApplicationA young man is brought by relatives in panic, convinced that his penis is shrinking into his abdomen and that he will die when it disappears. Which culture-bound syndro…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Munchausen by proxy · Multi-stepA mother repeatedly brings her 4-year-old to hospital with unexplained seizures and vomiting. Symptoms occur only when she is alone with the child, tests show no organi…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Munchausen syndrome · ApplicationA man travels from hospital to hospital with dramatic abdominal pain, has several scars of unnecessary laparotomies and gives a falsified history, with no external gain…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: Selvi v State of Karnataka · ApplicationPolice want to administer narco-analysis to a suspect who refuses. What is the position after the Supreme Court judgment in Selvi v State of Karnataka (2010)?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: advance directive · ApplicationA woman with recurrent bipolar disorder wishes to record in writing, while well, how she should and should not be treated in a future relapse. Under the Mental Healthca…
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: ECT in minors · ApplicationA psychiatrist plans modified ECT with anaesthesia for a 15-year-old with severe depression unresponsive to drugs. What does the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 provide?
- Sexual offences and forensic psychiatry: child witness · ApplicationA 7-year-old girl is the only eyewitness to an assault. Under Indian law, can she testify?
Medical law and ethics29
- Medical law and ethics: arrested persons and custody · ApplicationA person is arrested and taken into police custody. According to the Supreme Court guidelines for arrest, which safeguard is required?
- Medical law and ethics: Tuskegee study · ApplicationHundreds of poor African American men with syphilis were observed for decades without being told the diagnosis or offered penicillin once it was available. This study l…
- Medical law and ethics: do not resuscitate orders · Multi-stepA terminally ill patient with metastatic cancer, who is competent, asks that no cardiopulmonary resuscitation be attempted if his heart stops. Which principle most dire…
- Medical law and ethics: Declaration of Malta · Multi-stepA prisoner on hunger strike is competent and has clearly refused all food. A doctor is asked by the jail authorities to force-feed him. What does medical ethics require?
- Medical law and ethics: dual loyalty · Multi-stepA prison doctor is told by the superintendent to certify an injured inmate as fit for interrogation. The doctor finds signs of recent beating. What should he do?
- Medical law and ethics: clinical equipoise · ApplicationA trial randomises patients between two treatments only when the medical community is genuinely uncertain which is better. Which concept justifies this?
- Medical law and ethics: practice without registration · ApplicationA person without any recognised medical qualification or registration treats patients and prescribes allopathic drugs for a fee. Which description fits him?
- Medical law and ethics: transgender persons · ApplicationUnder the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, which authority issues the certificate of identity as a transgender person on an application based on sel…
- Medical law and ethics: right to privacy and medical records · ApplicationA patient sues a hospital that gave his diagnosis to his employer without consent. His lawyer relies on the 2017 Supreme Court judgment of Puttaswamy. Under which provi…
- Medical law and ethics: compensation in clinical trials · ApplicationA participant in a registered clinical trial develops a serious adverse event that is judged to be related to the trial drug. What is his entitlement under the New Drug…
- Medical law and ethics: emergency treatment without consent · ApplicationAn unconscious road accident victim is brought to the casualty with no relative present. The surgeon finds a ruptured spleen and does an emergency laparotomy without an…
- Medical law and ethics: punishment for death by medical negligence · ApplicationA registered medical practitioner is convicted of causing the death of a patient by a negligent act in the course of a medical procedure. What is the maximum imprisonme…
- Medical law and ethics: duty to treat accident victims · ApplicationA seriously injured road accident victim is brought to a hospital. The staff refuse to start treatment until police formalities for a medicolegal case are completed. Wh…
- Medical law and ethics: cruelty by husband or relatives · ApplicationA married woman is brought to hospital with injuries. Her sister says that the husband and his parents have been harassing her for years to bring more property from her…
- Medical law and ethics: Declaration of Tokyo · ApplicationPrison authorities ask a doctor to attend the interrogation of a detainee and certify that he can withstand further beatings. Which World Medical Association declaratio…
- Medical law and ethics: consent documentation in trials · ApplicationUnder the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019, how must the informed consent process of each trial participant be recorded in addition to the signed form?
- Medical law and ethics: distributive justice in triage · Multi-stepDuring a surge, an ICU with one free ventilator allocates it to a 30-year-old with reversible pneumonia rather than a 78-year-old with advanced dementia, based on likel…
- Medical law and ethics: notification of tuberculosis · ApplicationA private chest physician diagnoses sputum-positive pulmonary tuberculosis. Which statement about informing the public health authority is correct in India?
- Medical law and ethics: physician-assisted suicide · ApplicationA physician supplies a lethal dose of a drug to a terminally ill, mentally competent patient, who then takes it himself. How is the physician's act described?
- Medical law and ethics: advance medical directive · ApplicationAn adult with motor neurone disease writes, while competent, that she must not be put on a ventilator in the terminal stage. What is the status of such an advance medic…
- Medical law and ethics: refreshing memory in court · ApplicationWhile testifying, a doctor asks to look at the wound certificate he wrote on the day of examination, to recall the findings. What is the legal position?
- Medical law and ethics: volenti non fit injuria · ApplicationA patient signs consent after being told of the recognised risk of nerve injury in a thyroid operation. The injury occurs despite proper technique. Which defence is the…
- Medical law and ethics: HIV testing and consent · ApplicationBefore elective surgery an orthopaedic surgeon wants to test an adult patient for HIV without telling her, in order to decide on precautions. What does the HIV and AIDS…
- Medical law and ethics: MTP Medical Board · Multi-stepA 27-week pregnancy is found to have a fetal cardiac anomaly incompatible with life. Under the MTP (Amendment) Act 2021, who decides on termination beyond 24 weeks?
- Medical law and ethics: spousal consent for sterilisation · ApplicationA competent 30-year-old woman is scheduled for tubal ligation. Her husband signs the consent form, and she is not asked. Whose consent is legally valid?
- Medical law and ethics: grievous hurt by 20-day disability · ApplicationA man is struck with a stick and sustains extensive bruising without fracture or bleeding. He is bedridden and unable to do his usual work for three weeks. How is the h…
- Medical law and ethics: death certificate in unnatural death · ApplicationA man brought to hospital with suspected poisoning dies within an hour. His relatives ask for a death certificate. What should the treating doctor do?
- Medical law and ethics: consent of an illiterate participant · ApplicationAn illiterate farmer agrees to join a clinical trial. How should consent be documented under the ethical guidelines?
- Medical law and ethics: expert reports without attendance · Multi-stepIn a trial, the report of a government Chemical Examiner is produced against the accused. Is the examiner required to appear in court?
Forensic psychiatry28
- Forensic psychiatry: frotteurism · ApplicationA 30-year-old man repeatedly presses his genitals against unsuspecting women in crowded buses and derives sexual arousal from it. This paraphilia is called:
- Forensic psychiatry: paedophilic disorder · ApplicationAccording to DSM-5, paedophilic disorder requires that the person be at least how old, and at least how many years older than the generally prepubescent child?
- Forensic psychiatry: irresistible impulse · ApplicationAn accused with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder knew that setting fire to a shop was wrong, but claims that he could not resist the urge. Which legal test concerns…
- Forensic psychiatry: lucid interval · ApplicationA man with relapsing bipolar disorder executes a will during a symptom-free period, and relatives later challenge it. Under Indian law, the will is likely to be:
- Forensic psychiatry: Othello syndrome · Multi-stepA 45-year-old man with long-standing alcohol dependence is convinced, without evidence, that his wife is unfaithful. He searches her belongings and has assaulted her. W…
- Forensic psychiatry: erotomania · ApplicationA 38-year-old woman believes a famous actor is secretly in love with her despite never meeting him, and she persistently writes letters and waits outside his house. Thi…
- Forensic psychiatry: Ganser syndrome · Multi-stepA prisoner awaiting trial for murder gives absurd but approximate answers, for example saying that a bicycle has three wheels. He has clouding of consciousness and hall…
- Forensic psychiatry: involuntary intoxication · Multi-stepA man given a drink laced with a sedative without his knowledge assaults someone, being unable to understand the nature of his act. How does Indian law treat his act?
- Forensic psychiatry: transvestism · Multi-stepA 40-year-old married man, who identifies himself as male and has no wish to change sex, privately wears women's clothes because it causes sexual arousal. How should th…
- Forensic psychiatry: lucid interval · Multi-stepA man with bipolar disorder executed a will during a period of remission. After his death, a relative challenges it on grounds of insanity. Which approach reflects the…
- Forensic psychiatry: irresistible impulse · ApplicationWhich test of criminal responsibility, accepted in some jurisdictions but not under Indian law, would excuse an accused who knew his act was wrong but was unable to con…
- Forensic psychiatry: delirium tremens · Multi-stepA chronic alcohol-dependent man, three days after stopping drinking, is in a state of delirium with vivid hallucinations of insects. Believing his brother to be an intr…
- Forensic psychiatry: Mental Healthcare Act 2017 · ApplicationUnder the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 in India, how is a person who attempts suicide to be treated?
- Forensic psychiatry: factitious disorder imposed on another · Multi-stepA 3-year-old child is admitted nine times with unexplained fits and vomiting. Investigations are normal, and symptoms occur only when the mother is alone with him. The…
- Forensic psychiatry: Ganser syndrome · ApplicationA man awaiting trial for murder answers simple questions absurdly, for example saying a horse has five legs, though the answers show he understood the question. This is…
- Forensic psychiatry: illusion · ApplicationAt dusk a villager shouts that a snake lies in his path, but it is a coiled rope. He accepts the correction when shown with a torch. This is best called:
- Forensic psychiatry: criminal responsibility · ApplicationA man with schizophrenia kills a neighbour in the belief that he is a demon attacking him, and does not realise that the act is wrong. Which legal test governs his crim…
- Forensic psychiatry: Mental Healthcare Act 2017, admission · ApplicationA 35-year-old woman with severe depression, who has capacity to make decisions, wishes to be admitted to a mental health establishment. Under the Mental Healthcare Act…
- Forensic psychiatry: burden of proof for insanity defence · Multi-stepAn accused charged with murder pleads unsoundness of mind under Section 84 IPC (BNS 22). How is the burden of proof treated in Indian law?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat is criminal responsibility primarily concerned with in forensic psychiatry?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of assessing a patient's decision-making capacity?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat does fitness to stand trial primarily assess?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat is a key clinical priority when assessing suicide risk?
- Forensic psychiatry: criminal responsibility · ApplicationWhy is a contemporaneous mental-status examination important in forensic psychiatric assessment?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of a mental-state examination in forensic assessment?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat does capacity to consent to treatment require?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationIn forensic psychiatry, what does malingering describe?
- Forensic psychiatry · ApplicationWhat is a key distinction between insanity defence and fitness to stand trial?
Sexual offences24
- Sexual offences: examination of the survivor · ApplicationA 19-year-old woman reports sexual assault. Which approach is consistent with current Indian guidelines for the medical examination?
- Sexual offences: POCSO examination · ApplicationA 9-year-old girl is brought to a district hospital with an allegation of penetrative sexual assault. Under the POCSO Act, how should her medical examination be conduct…
- Sexual offences: age of consent · ApplicationConsensual sexual intercourse takes place between an unmarried 22-year-old man and an unmarried 17-year-old girl. Under Indian law, how is this regarded?
- Sexual offences: seminal fluid confirmation · Multi-stepA man accused of rape had a vasectomy years ago, and a vaginal swab shows no spermatozoa on microscopy. Which test can still confirm seminal fluid?
- Sexual offences: Barberio's test · ApplicationBarberio's test for seminal stains uses which reagent and demonstrates which crystals?
- Sexual offences: impotence and sterility · Multi-stepA 32-year-old married man with normal erections and ejaculation is found to have azoospermia from testicular failure and cannot father children. Medicolegally he is:
- Sexual offences: child sexual abuse accommodation · ApplicationA 12-year-old girl abused by a relative for months discloses it only after a long delay, gives inconsistent details and later retracts. Which model best explains this b…
- Sexual offences: HIV post-exposure prophylaxis · Multi-stepA 26-year-old woman presents 20 hours after an alleged penetrative rape by an unknown man. Which HIV post-exposure prophylaxis is recommended under the NACO guidelines?
- Sexual offences: emergency contraception · Multi-stepA 21-year-old woman presents 4 days after an unprotected sexual assault and requests emergency contraception. Which of the following is the most effective option?
- Sexual offences: handling clothing evidence · ApplicationThe clothes of a rape survivor are damp with blood and semen. How should they be packed for the laboratory?
- Sexual offences: hymen · ApplicationA 17-year-old girl alleges forced intercourse four days ago. Examination shows an intact, elastic, annular hymen and no genital or extragenital injuries. How should thi…
- Sexual offences: sperm persistence · ApplicationA woman presents three days after an alleged assault. Which site of the genital tract is most likely to still contain detectable sperm?
- Sexual offences: mandatory reporting · Multi-stepA doctor in a hospital examines a 14-year-old girl who is four months pregnant, brought by her mother, who asks that no police be informed. Which course is consistent w…
- Sexual offences: fetishism · ApplicationA man is arrested for repeatedly stealing women's shoes from outside homes. He admits he cannot become sexually aroused or reach orgasm without handling them. This is b…
- Sexual offences: Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 · ApplicationAfter the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, a man repeatedly follows a woman and contacts her through messages despite clear disinterest. Which specific offence was in…
- Sexual offences: surrogacy regulation · ApplicationA couple wishes to pay a woman a fee beyond medical expenses to carry their child. Under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021, what is the position?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhat specimen is most useful for recovering spermatozoa after alleged intercourse?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhy are swabs dried and packaged correctly after collection?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhy is informed consent obtained before forensic examination when capacity is present?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of documenting injuries with body diagrams?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhy are forensic swabs dried before packaging?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhat should a clinician do if a competent patient declines forensic sampling after assault?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhat is the primary clinical aim of a sexual-assault examination?
- Sexual offences · ApplicationWhy is documentation of consent throughout a forensic examination important?
Postmortem changes22
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat is the early postmortem cooling of the body called?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat causes postmortem lividity?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhich change makes muscles stiff after death?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat postmortem process produces greenish discoloration over the right lower abdomen?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat preservation change occurs in a dry, hot environment?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat waxy transformation of body fat occurs in moist conditions?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat describes a sudden stiffening of selected muscles at the moment of death?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat factor can alter the rate of body cooling after death?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhy is fixed lividity useful in postmortem assessment?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat is the term for postmortem cooling of the body?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat causes postmortem lividity?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat change makes muscles stiff after death?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat preservation change produces a waxy appearance in moist conditions?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhich statement best describes rigor mortis?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat mechanism produces postmortem lividity?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhich external factor can accelerate cooling of a body after death?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhat postmortem finding may suggest prolonged immersion in water?
- Postmortem changes: lividity · ApplicationWhich feature suggests postmortem lividity has become fixed?
- Postmortem changes: rigor mortis · ApplicationWhat biochemical event is responsible for rigor mortis?
- Postmortem changes: putrefaction · ApplicationWhich early feature is classically associated with putrefaction?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhich postmortem change is caused by drying of exposed mucosal surfaces?
- Postmortem changes · ApplicationWhy can postmortem lividity be useful in scene reconstruction?
Asphyxia15
- Asphyxia: ligature strangulation · ApplicationA woman is found dead with a horizontal, complete, thin furrow around the neck at the level of the thyroid cartilage. There is no suspension point and the face is conge…
- Asphyxia: judicial hanging · Multi-stepAt autopsy of a man executed by long-drop judicial hanging, the neck knot was placed under the chin. Which injury is characteristic?
- Asphyxia: vagal inhibition in hanging · Multi-stepA man is found hanged with a very slight ligature mark that shows a vital reaction on histology, a pale face, no petechiae and no cyanosis. He was previously healthy an…
- Asphyxia: dry drowning · ApplicationA child jumps into a cold pond and is dead within a minute. At autopsy, the lungs contain very little water and there is no froth. Which mechanism best explains the dea…
- Asphyxia: freshwater versus seawater · Multi-stepIn classical experimental teaching, which sequence follows aspiration of a large volume of freshwater into the lungs?
- Asphyxia: Gettler's test · Multi-stepAt autopsy of a body from a lake, the chloride content of blood from the left side of the heart is markedly lower than from the right side. According to Gettler's test,…
- Asphyxia: drowning lung changes · ApplicationAt autopsy of a drowned man the lungs are bulky, overlap the heart, feel doughy and pit on pressure. Pale bluish subpleural patches are seen. These patches are called:
- Asphyxia: choking · ApplicationAn intoxicated man collapses suddenly during a restaurant meal, becomes cyanosed and dies before reaching hospital. It was initially thought to be a heart attack. Autop…
- Asphyxia: burking · ApplicationA drunken old man is found dead with only minimal marks on the face and chest wall. The history suggests the assailant lay across his chest while covering his mouth and…
- Asphyxia: autoerotic death · ApplicationA 24-year-old man is found hanging in a locked room, with a towel padding the ligature, and erotic material nearby. There is no note and no signs of a struggle. What is…
- Asphyxia: positional restraint · Multi-stepAn obese intoxicated man is restrained prone by police with a knee over his back and becomes quiet in minutes. Autopsy shows congestion, petechiae and no significant in…
- Asphyxia: age and hyoid fracture · Multi-stepTwo victims of manual strangulation are autopsied, one aged 22 and one aged 62. The same degree of neck compression was applied. Which statement is most accurate?
- Asphyxia: inert gas · Multi-stepA man is found dead with a plastic bag over his head connected by a tube to a cylinder of nitrogen. The face is only mildly cyanosed and there are no signs of struggle.…
- Asphyxia · ApplicationWhat is the clinical priority in suspected asphyxia?
- Asphyxia · ApplicationWhich finding is compatible with drowning but is not independently diagnostic?
Firearm injuries14
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationA circular entry wound has surrounding tiny punctate dark specks that cannot be wiped off. What are they due to?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationA suicide victim has a contact rifle wound over the temple with a stellate, ragged entry and soot on the bone of the skull. What explains the stellate shape?
- Firearm injuries: exit wound · ApplicationOn examining a gunshot victim, two wounds are found. One is small and round with a rim of abrasion. The other is larger and irregular with everted margins and no abrasi…
- Firearm injuries: bevelling of skull wounds · Multi-stepAt autopsy a flat bone of the skull shows a circular perforation. The hole is small and sharp-edged on the outer table and wide and crater-like on the inner table. Whic…
- Firearm injuries: keyhole defect · Multi-stepA shooting victim's skull shows a single bony defect that is bevelled internally at one end and externally at the other, shaped like a keyhole. What is the correct inte…
- Firearm injuries: kinetic energy of the bullet · ApplicationTwo bullets of the same mass (10 g) are fired, one at 300 m/s and one at 600 m/s. Compared with the first, the kinetic energy of the second is:
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationIn a contact firearm wound, what may be seen around the entry wound?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhich wound usually has everted edges?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhat deposit may be present around a close-range firearm entry wound?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhat feature is common around a close-range firearm entry wound?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhat wound feature generally favors a firearm exit wound?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhich feature is commonly present around an entrance wound from a distant firearm discharge?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhich finding is most consistent with a close-range firearm entry wound?
- Firearm injuries · ApplicationWhat feature is most typical of a distant firearm entry wound?
Mechanical injury13
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationAn abrasion is best defined as what?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationA laceration is most commonly produced by what?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat feature favors an incised wound over a laceration?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat type of injury is caused by blunt force with subcutaneous bleeding?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat is a stab wound?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat feature suggests a defense injury?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat mechanism produces a patterned abrasion?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat is a bruise caused by?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat feature may distinguish a laceration from an incised wound?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat does an abrasion collar around a firearm entry wound support?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationA fall onto a rough surface produces superficial loss of epidermis without a deep wound; what injury is present?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat feature favors a laceration over an incised wound?
- Mechanical injury · ApplicationWhat injury pattern suggests a defensive wound?
Medical ethics11
- Medical ethics: emergency treatment without consent · ApplicationA 40-year-old man is brought unconscious after a road accident, hypotensive with signs of a ruptured spleen. No relative can be traced. What should the surgeon do?
- Medical ethics: rebates and commission · ApplicationA general practitioner refers patients to a particular diagnostic laboratory, which pays him 20% of each bill. How is this practice regarded under the Indian medical Co…
- Medical ethics: confidentiality and HIV · Multi-stepA man known to be HIV-positive plans to marry and has refused to tell his fiancée. In Mr X v. Hospital Z (1998) the Supreme Court considered whether the hospital could…
- Medical ethics: refusal of treatment · ApplicationA 35-year-old competent Jehovah's Witness with a haemoglobin of 6 g/dL after postpartum haemorrhage refuses blood transfusion after being fully informed. Which ethical…
- Medical ethics: principle of double effect · ApplicationA doctor titrates morphine to relieve severe pain in a terminally ill cancer patient, knowing that respiratory depression might hasten death, though the intent is only…
- Medical ethics: duty to warn · Multi-stepA psychiatrist's patient says he plans to kill a named neighbour and has acquired a weapon. After assessing the risk as serious, what is the most appropriate step?
- Medical ethics: therapeutic privilege · ApplicationA doctor decides not to reveal the full details of a grave diagnosis to an extremely anxious elderly patient because he believes disclosure would seriously harm the pat…
- Medical ethics: Belmont Report · Multi-stepA trial of a risky new drug recruits only patients from a charity ward because they are easy to enrol, though the drug will be marketed mainly to wealthy patients. Whic…
- Medical ethics: Charter of Patients' Rights · ApplicationA patient who wants a second opinion asks for copies of her case papers and reports, but the hospital refuses. Which right in the NHRC Charter of Patients' Rights is vi…
- Medical ethics · ApplicationWhich ethical principle supports a patient's right to refuse treatment?
- Medical ethics · ApplicationWhat should be disclosed after a significant medical error?
Forensic toxicology10
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhich specimen is especially valuable for detecting recent carbon monoxide exposure in a deceased person?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhy should postmortem toxicology results be interpreted with caution?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhich sample is particularly useful for estimating ethanol concentration after death?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhich toxidrome includes dry mouth, mydriasis, and urinary retention?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhich antidote reverses clinically significant opioid-induced respiratory depression?
- Forensic toxicology: chain of custody · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of maintaining chain of custody for a forensic specimen?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhy is vitreous humour useful in postmortem toxicology?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhich clinical pattern is typical of organophosphate poisoning?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhy are two blood samples sometimes collected for alcohol analysis?
- Forensic toxicology · ApplicationWhat is the danger of interpreting a postmortem drug level without context?
Evidence handling8
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhy is chain of custody maintained for specimens?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhy is a documented chain of custody essential for forensic specimens?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhat is the main purpose of sealing a forensic evidence package?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhy should wet biological evidence be dried before paper packaging when feasible?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhat is the key reason for changing gloves between forensic specimens?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhy should each item of clothing be packaged separately in a sexual-assault examination?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhy are tamper-evident seals initialled and dated?
- Evidence handling · ApplicationWhat is the appropriate approach to a wet bloodstained fabric item?
Asphyxial death7
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationFine persistent froth at the mouth and nose most supports which diagnosis?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationPetechial hemorrhages in conjunctivae are a classic supportive sign of what?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationWhat is the mechanism of death in hanging?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationWhat feature is often seen in strangulation?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationWhat is a key difference between hanging and strangulation?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationWhat mechanism causes death in hanging?
- Asphyxial death · ApplicationWhat finding may support drowning?
Child protection7
- Child protection · ApplicationWhat injury in a nonmobile infant is concerning?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhich bruise location is more concerning for inflicted injury in a non-mobile infant?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhat is essential when documenting suspected non-accidental injury?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhich injury history is most concerning for inflicted trauma?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhy are patterned bruises important in safeguarding assessment?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhich presentation needs urgent safeguarding consideration?
- Child protection · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of a body map in safeguarding documentation?
Poisoning management6
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhat information is most useful immediately when managing a suspected poisoning emergency?
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhich clinical feature is most characteristic of opioid toxicity?
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhat is the first priority in any suspected poisoning with reduced consciousness?
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhat is the specific antidote for paracetamol overdose?
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhich finding is typical of salicylate toxicity?
- Poisoning management · ApplicationWhat is the antidote for cyanide poisoning in appropriate emergency protocols?
Burns5
- Burns · ApplicationWhat is adult rule-of-nines estimate for one arm?
- Burns · ApplicationWhat does soot in airway support?
- Burns · ApplicationWhat is a feature of deep full-thickness burn?
- Burns · ApplicationWhat is a vital reaction that supports antemortem burning?
- Burns · ApplicationWhat determines the severity of a burn most directly?
Consent5
- Consent · ApplicationA competent adult refuses forensic collection. What principle applies?
- Consent · ApplicationWhat can a competent patient withdraw at any time?
- Consent · ApplicationFor an adult with decision-making capacity, valid consent must be what?
- Consent · ApplicationIn an emergency with an unconscious patient and no surrogate, treatment may proceed under what principle?
- Consent · ApplicationFor a capable adult, valid procedural consent must be what?
Death investigation5
- Death investigation · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of an inquest in a suspicious death?
- Death investigation · ApplicationWhat is a manner of death classification?
- Death investigation · ApplicationWhich observation most strongly supports that a body has been moved after fixed lividity developed?
- Death investigation · ApplicationWhy is a body temperature estimate alone insufficient to determine the exact time of death?
- Death investigation · ApplicationWhich postmortem change is most likely to develop faster in a warm humid environment?
Forensic pathology5
- Forensic pathology: contusion · ApplicationWhich statement best distinguishes a bruise from postmortem lividity?
- Forensic pathology: exhumation · ApplicationWhat is a key procedural requirement when a body is exhumed for medico-legal examination?
- Forensic pathology: time since death · ApplicationWhich statement about estimating time since death is most accurate?
- Forensic pathology · ApplicationWhat is a sequestrum in chronic osteomyelitis?
- Forensic pathology · ApplicationWhy is a full scene history important before autopsy interpretation?
Medical jurisprudence5
- Medical jurisprudence · ApplicationA surgical swab is found inside a patient's abdomen after an operation. The legal doctrine invoked, suggesting that negligence is evident without further proof, is:
- Medical jurisprudence: standard of care · ApplicationIn judging whether a doctor's treatment was negligent, which test do courts apply?
- Medical jurisprudence: stillbirth and viability · ApplicationA fetus of about 24 weeks gestation is delivered dead. How is this classified under Indian law on registration of births and deaths?
- Medical jurisprudence: consent · ApplicationWhich statement about valid informed consent is correct?
- Medical jurisprudence: capacity · ApplicationWhich ability is essential when assessing decision-making capacity for a treatment decision?
Professional conduct5
- Professional conduct · ApplicationWhat duty requires clinicians to keep patient information private?
- Professional conduct · ApplicationWhat is the appropriate response when a clinician finds a material error in a medical record?
- Professional conduct · ApplicationWhy should a clinician avoid dual relationships with vulnerable patients?
- Professional conduct · ApplicationWhat is the appropriate response to a colleague practising while intoxicated?
- Professional conduct · ApplicationWhy should clinicians declare conflicts of interest in medicolegal work?
Wounds5
- Wounds · ApplicationWhat injury is caused by blunt force tearing skin?
- Wounds · ApplicationWhat injury is caused by tangential friction?
- Wounds · ApplicationWhat injury is a closed soft-tissue hemorrhage?
- Wounds: incised wound · ApplicationWhich wound pattern is typical of a sharp cutting edge?
- Wounds: defense injuries · ApplicationWhich injury distribution is most consistent with defense injuries in an assault?
Death certification4
- Death certification · ApplicationWhat is the immediate cause of death on a certificate?
- Death certification · ApplicationWhat is the underlying cause of death?
- Death certification · ApplicationWhat should a cause-of-death certificate avoid listing as the sole cause?
- Death certification · ApplicationWhat is an underlying cause of death?
Drowning4
- Drowning · ApplicationWhat is true of froth in suspected drowning?
- Drowning · ApplicationDrowning is best diagnosed using what?
- Drowning · ApplicationWhat airway finding can support death by drowning?
- Drowning · ApplicationWhich external observation can be seen in some bodies recovered soon after drowning?
Forensic serology4
- Forensic serology · ApplicationThe acid phosphatase test in a forensic laboratory is used to detect:
- Forensic serology: species identification · ApplicationA dried stain on a knife is confirmed as blood. The accused says it came from a slaughtered goat. Which test establishes the species of origin of the blood?
- Forensic serology: prostate-specific antigen · Multi-stepA vaginal swab from an alleged sexual assault shows no spermatozoa on microscopy. The suspect is known to be azoospermic. Which test can still show that seminal fluid w…
- Forensic serology: Barberio's test · ApplicationA stain on a petticoat is treated with a saturated solution of picric acid, producing yellow needle-shaped crystals. Which substance is being demonstrated?
Injury interpretation4
- Injury interpretation · ApplicationWhich wound feature most strongly favours a laceration over an incised wound?
- Injury interpretation · ApplicationWhat does a patterned abrasion on skin most often indicate?
- Injury interpretation · ApplicationWhat feature best distinguishes a stab wound from an incised wound?
- Injury interpretation · ApplicationWhat does an abrasion with a tailing end help determine?
Medical negligence4
- Medical negligence · ApplicationWhat is the standard expected from a clinician in negligence assessment?
- Medical negligence · ApplicationWhat standard is used when assessing clinical negligence?
- Medical negligence · ApplicationWhat must be established to prove clinical negligence in general?
- Medical negligence · ApplicationWhich element is required to establish clinical negligence in general legal principles?
Wound interpretation4
- Wound interpretation · ApplicationWhat feature helps distinguish an incised wound from a laceration?
- Wound interpretation · ApplicationWhat does a defensive injury commonly indicate?
- Wound interpretation · ApplicationWhat feature suggests a bruise occurred while circulation was active?
- Wound interpretation · ApplicationWhat is a hesitation cut most likely to indicate?
Age estimation3
Autopsy3
Disaster victim identification3
- Disaster victim identification · ApplicationWhich practice best supports disaster victim identification after a mass-casualty event?
- Disaster victim identification · ApplicationWhat is the purpose of reconciliation in disaster victim identification?
- Disaster victim identification · ApplicationWhat is the role of an ante-mortem data team in disaster identification?
Evidence3
Firearms3
Injury morphology3
Mechanical injuries3
- Mechanical injuries · ApplicationWhich feature most strongly supports a laceration rather than an incised wound?
- Mechanical injuries · ApplicationWhat wound pattern is most consistent with injury from a sharp-edged object drawn across skin?
- Mechanical injuries · ApplicationWhy are injuries on the forearms and hands important in an assault examination?
Postmortem change3
Thermal injury3
- Thermal injury · ApplicationWhat may indicate inhalation of smoke while alive in a fire?
- Thermal injury: burns · ApplicationWhich feature helps distinguish an antemortem burn from a postmortem heat injury?
- Thermal injury: smoke inhalation · ApplicationWhich autopsy finding supports inhalation of smoke while alive during a fire?
Death signs2
Documentation2
Ethics2
Forensic photography2
Legal medicine2
Medical documentation2
Medicolegal documentation2
Negligence2
Poisons2
Sexual offences examination2
Bloodstain interpretation1
Cause-of-death certification1
Electrical injuries1
Exhumation1
Forensic biology1
Forensic entomology1
Forensic specimens1
Legal evidence1
Medicolegal investigation1
Personal identification1
Professional duty1
Professional responsibility1
Sexual assault care1
Sexual assault examination1
Sexual offences and obstetrics1
Common questions
How many Forensic Medicine questions are there?
890 original questions across 634 topics, and the bank grows over time.
Which Forensic Medicine topics are covered?
Thanatology, Toxicology, Forensic serology, Injuries, Asphyxial deaths, Firearm injuries, Identification, Medical jurisprudence, Thanatology: post-mortem staining, Toxicology: plant poisons, Medical jurisprudence: standard of care, Sexual offences: examination of the survivor, and more.
How difficult are these Forensic Medicine questions?
0 are recall, 676 are application and 214 are multi-step. The tags are our own editorial judgement, not an official difficulty rating.
Are these Forensic Medicine questions from past papers?
No. They are original practice items. NBEMS does not publish its paper or an official key, and we do not use recalled or leaked questions.
Can I practise Forensic Medicine for free?
Yes. The free plan includes 20 practice questions a day across all subjects, and the free 20-question assessment covers every subject. A paid term removes the daily limit.
Is there a timed Forensic Medicine test?
Yes. The Forensic Medicine subject test is included with a paid term, with a countdown and a question palette.
How should I use these Forensic Medicine questions?
Answer before you look, read the reason for every option, and write a three-line note for each mistake. A few questions you fully review are worth more than many you skim.
Have these Forensic Medicine questions been reviewed by faculty?
Not yet. They are original and drafted with AI assistance, then edited by our team. Independent faculty review is planned, and each item shows its status. Confirm important facts in a standard textbook.