[The use of a method of sequential mathematical analysis for the differential diagnosis of trauma from a fall from a height and of trauma due to the collision of a moving automobile with a pedestrian by the chest injuries].

Fifty cadavers of subjects dead after falling from height and 50 cadavers of subjects dead as a result of collisions between moving cars and pedestrians were examined. Under study were injuries to soft tissues of the chest, thoracic bones and viscera, and combinations thereof. Mathematical probability successive analysis after Gubler (1978) helped distinguish 64 highly informative injuries-signs which permit determining the type of injury. Diagnostic coefficients and informative value of these signs are presented in the differential diagnostic table.