Saint-Martin Pauline, Rogers Christopher, Muto Joseph, Boyle Noel G, Rieders Daniel, Sathyavagiswaran Lakshmanan
Service de Médecine Légale, Hôpital Trousseau, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours Cedex 1, France.
J Forensic Sci. 2008 Sep;53(5):1160-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00805.x. Epub 2008 Jul 14.
Pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are implanted medical devices for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. These devices are now commonly encountered in the postmortem situation. The Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner uses the services of a cardiac electrophysiology consultant to interrogate pacemakers and ICDs, producing a detailed picture of the cardiac events recorded by the device. We have used this method to evaluate 20 cases where the ICD or pacemaker provided significant information. We report four forensic cases to illustrate the different applications of pacemaker interrogation and its contribution in forensic investigation. This technique was used to establish identification of the decedent, to determine the cause and time of death, and to determine whether device malfunction could have played a role in the death. We conclude that detailed evaluation of the pacemaker or ICD in selected cases may provide essential information to the forensic pathologist.
起搏器和植入式心脏复律除颤器（ICD）是用于治疗心律失常的植入式医疗设备。现在，这些设备在尸检中很常见。洛杉矶县验尸官部门利用心脏电生理顾问的服务来询问起搏器和ICD，从而详细了解该设备记录的心脏事件。我们已使用这种方法评估了20例ICD或起搏器提供了重要信息的病例。我们报告4例法医案例，以说明起搏器询问的不同应用及其在法医调查中的作用。该技术用于确定死者身份、确定死亡原因和时间，并确定设备故障是否可能在死亡中起作用。我们得出结论，在特定案例中对起搏器或ICD进行详细评估可能会为法医病理学家提供重要信息。
