Considering the growing number of requests from the criminal investigations authorities addressed to the institutions of legal medicine, testing of blood alcohol concentration both in the living person and in the corpse, we believe that a presentation of the two methods which are used in our country, is a topic of interest at present. The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with the technical details on how blodd alcohol concentration is realised by means of the gas chromatographic method and the classical one, (Cordebard modified by D. Banciu and I. Droc) respectively. Another purpose of this article is to also show, in a comparative way, the elements that make the gas chromatographic method superior to the former one.

Cocaine is an alkaloid obtained from the leaves of the coca plant, Erythroxylum coca. Cocaine sulfate, a brown paste, is obtained from coca leaves and from this, cocaine hydrochloride, a white substance, soluble in water and with a bitter taste that may be in the form of white crystals or powder. From cocaine hydrochloride crack is obtained by heating, a more purified form and with greater power of intoxication and addiction. Once in the organism, cocaine behaves like an indirect sympathomimetic amine and produces a blockade of the presynaptic reuptake of dopamine, adrenaline, noradrenaline and serotonin, thus increasing their levels. At the cardiovascular level cocaine is responsible for malignant arrhythmias, sometimes responsible for sudden death. Other symptoms that can occur are aortic dissection, arterial hypertension and coronary vasoconstriction able to trigger an acute myocardial infarction. The authors present a case of sudden cardiac death due to cocaine intoxication in a young male without any cardiac risk factors. The autopsy, together with the results of the complementary tests, indicate that the most probable death mechanism has been a cardiogenic shock secondary to extensive myocardial necrosis due to cocaine intoxication.

The various insufficiencies or even diseases generated by the intoxication with the various substances, affect the quality of life -both of the intoxicated person and of those in the social environment in which he lives and works. The present article aims to analyse a series of perspectives regarding the role and importance of studying chemistry in the professional training of future doctors, especially residents in the field of forensic medicine.

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death, and sudden cardiac death occupies the first place in sudden deaths of natural causes. Sudden cardiac death due to lethal arrhythmia may be the first manifestation of a cardiac disease, such cases becoming suspect dead, thus forensic cases. The autopsy performed in such cases may reveal important cardiovascular disease but not obvious macroscopic or histological changes of acute myocardial infarction (IMA), except for cases of survival for several hours after the onset of the symptomatology. Biochemical markers were used to test for myocardial lesions in the absence of morphological changes. Methods for determining myoglobin, CK-MB, troponin T (cTn T), troponin I (cTn I) were introduced to the clinic to diagnose the condition of patients with chest pain as early as the 1990s. The lack of pathognomonic elements in corps investigations, where part of the analysis cannot be carried out, requires verification of the value of the investigations that can be carried out, with reference to the biochemical in the present case, in establishing the diagnosis with certainty.

Death by intoxication represents an important cause of violent deaths which could be easily prevented. Accidental ethanol and carbon monoxide intoxications produce the most frequent causes of violent deaths among civilians in Romania. To provide an insight in these types of deaths and to bring attention upon the clinical and biological manifestations as well as of the typical morphologically findings, the authors present a strange case of fatal intoxication due to carbon monoxide in an 88 years old male, found in his bed. Moreover, because of the simultaneous death of the male�s wife in the attic of the house, with ethanol intoxication, we would also like to bring attention to the juridical notion of commorientes, since in the establishing of its constituting characteristics the forensic expertise plays a decisive role.