This study aimed to explore the use of three-dimensional reconstructed computed tomography images of the adult humerus for forensic anthropological sex estimation in the Korean population. In forensic anthropology, the skull and pelvic bone show high accuracy in sex estimation; however, when they are impaired, other bones should be available for sex estimation. Six hundred images of the right and left humerus pair were used. A logistic regression analysis was performed by measuring the volumes of 500 images and the remaining 100 images were used in the metric sex estimation. Both the logistic regression and metric measurements were performed separately on three regions of the right and left humerus: the head, mid-shaft, and digital regions, The accuracy of sex estimation in the right humerus was 93% (91% for men and 96% for women), 92% (93% for men and 91% for women), and 87% (85% for men and 89% for women) for the head, mid-shaft, and digital regions, respectively. Sex estimation accuracy in the left humerus was 92% (89% for men and 96% for women), 93% (96% for men and 89% for women), and 91% (91% for men and 91% for women) for the head, mid-shaft, and digital regions, respectively. These results contribute to high accuracy and reliability in sex estimation using three-dimensional images of the humerus in Koreans, whereas the two-dimensional metric method provided limited information on bone measurements.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the changes of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients who were registered in a community mental health center. METHODS: The patients enrolled in this study were those registered in Suwon City Community Mental Health Center in 2008 and 2012, and there were 440 and 460 patients, respectively. The authors analyzed demographic data, medical insurance status, registration status of mental disability and clinical characteristics, such as diagnosis, type of medical institution the patients received medical care from, medication, duration of illness, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and global assessment function scores. RESULTS: There were more married patients in 2012 than in 2008 (23.1% vs. 34.3%, p<0.001) and the proportion of patients who were employed was larger in 2012 (8.2% vs. 10.2%, p=0.302). Also, in 2012, more patients received Level 1 medical care rather than health insurance (27.9% vs. 35.3%, p=0.007) and the number of patients with registered mental disability increased (27.7% vs. 52.6%, p<0.001). From 2008 to 2012, the number of patients diagnosed with other disorders besides psychotic disorders increased (15.5% vs. 22.9%, p=0.007). Also, more patients tended to receive medical treatment from private mental clinics (38.6% vs. 58.1%, p<0.001), and to be administered with atypical antipsychotics rather than conventional antipsychotics (58.6% vs. 80.4%, p=0.022). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that many characteristics of the patients registered in a community mental health center have been gradually changed. The patients registered in 2012 were likely to be diagnosed with other disorders besides psychotic disorders and to get more atypical antipsychotics compared to patients registered in 2008. This study would contribute to finding out the proper roles and functions of mental health centers, and, as a result, the mental health centers could be able to provide better quality of service to their registered patients.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ; Diagnosis ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Insurance Coverage ; Insurance, Health ; Mental Health* ; Psychotic Disorders ; Social Welfare

From January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, a total of 1147 postmortem inspection cases in Area 8, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (Gangseo, Yangcheon, and Guro police stations) were statistically analyzed. Autopsies were performed in 205 cases (17.9%), and the autopsy rates were 17.6% (75/426 cases) in the Gangseo police station, 9.5% (34/357 cases) in the Yangcheon police station, and 24.3% (82/337 cases) in the Guro police station. For 288 cases with an unknown cause of death, the autopsy rates were 70.0% (60/87 cases) in the Gangseo police station, 28.6% (26/91 cases) in the Yangcheon police station, and 63.1% (65/103 cases) in the Guro police station. For 65 cases due to fall from height, the autopsy rate was 7.7% (n=5). Of the 187 cases due to hanging, 155 cases were classified as suicide at the scene with a 4.5% (n=7) autopsy rate and 32 cases were classified as an undetermined manner of death at the scene with a 15.6% (n=5) autopsy rate. The distribution of the “manner of death” was natural death, 45% (n=516); unnatural death, 29.9% (n=343); and other and undetermined, 25.1% (n=288). Proportions of dispatch times were 50.9% (584 cases) during work hours (09:00–18:00), 13.8% (n=158) during evening hours (18:00–21:00), 13.4% (n=154) at night (21:00–00:00), 11% (n=126) at dawn (00:00–06:00), and 10.9% (n=125) during morning hours (06:00–09:00). The male-to-female ratio was 1.86:1 (746:401). These statistics are valuable for the evaluation of postmortem inspections by experts.
Autopsy ; Cause of Death ; Humans ; Police ; Seoul* ; Suicide