Forensic Medicine MBBS SOE Guide Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering medical jurisprudence, forensic psychiatry, toxicology, death, autopsy, and legal medicine definitions from the MBBS SOE guide.

Forensic Medicine

The application of medical knowledge to the administration of law.

Forensic Toxicology

The detection, identification, and interpretation of poisons, drugs, and toxic substances in biological and other samples for legal purposes.

Forensic Psychiatry

The application of psychiatric knowledge to legal questions, including criminal responsibility, fitness to stand trial, testamentary capacity, and assessment of mental illness in legal settings.

FIR (First Information Report)

A report recorded by police concerning information about a cognizable offence, according to applicable criminal procedure.

General Diary (GD)

A police station record of relevant events or complaints; it is not equivalent to an FIR in every case.

Cognizable Offence

An offence for which the police may arrest without a warrant and investigate according to law.

Non-cognizable Offence

An offence for which police generally require legal authority or an order to investigate and cannot ordinarily arrest without a warrant.

Hostile Witness

A witness whose testimony is adverse to or materially inconsistent with the party calling them, as determined under law.

Perjury

Knowingly giving false material evidence under oath or making a legally punishable false statement.

Medical Negligence

A breach of professional duty that generally requires a duty of care, breach of the applicable standard, causation, and legally recognised damage.

Malpractice

Professional negligence committed by a practitioner.

Corporate Negligence

Institutional negligence that may involve failures in staffing, equipment, systems, or hospital policies.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

A legal doctrine meaning 'the thing speaks for itself,' which permits an inference of negligence where the event ordinarily would not occur without negligence, the instrumentality was under the defendant's control, and the patient did not contribute.

Privileged Communication

A good-faith disclosure by a doctor to an appropriate authority or person to protect a legitimate interest or meet a legal duty, limited to relevant facts.

Posthumous Child

A child born after the death of the father.

Delivery

The expulsion or extraction of the fetus from the mother after pregnancy.

Artificial Insemination

A medical procedure that places sperm directly into the female reproductive tract.

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)

A procedure in which an ovum is fertilised outside the body and the resulting embryo is transferred to the uterus.

McNaughten Rule

A legal standard determining whether, due to a disease of the mind at the time of the act, the accused lacked the capacity to know the nature and quality of the act or that it was wrong/contrary to law.

Feigned Insanity

The deliberate fabrication or exaggeration of psychiatric symptoms (malingering) for external gain.

Toxic Psychosis

Psychotic symptoms directly caused by exposure to a toxic substance, medication, or withdrawal.

Lucid Interval (in Head Injury)

A temporary period of consciousness and apparent recovery following initial trauma in extradural haemorrhage, before deterioration occurs as intracranial bleeding progresses.

Vaginismus

Persistent or recurrent difficulty with vaginal penetration associated with pelvic-floor muscle tightening, fear, or pain.

Defloration

A traditional term denoting the disruption or tearing of the hymen.

Infertility

The failure to achieve pregnancy after $12\,\text{months}$ of regular unprotected intercourse.

Goodell's Sign

A suggestive sign of early pregnancy characterised by softening of the cervix.

Precipitate Labour

Labour and delivery occurring unusually rapidly, conventionally within about $3\,\text{hours}$ of onset.

Poison

A substance that can cause illness or death by its chemical action when introduced into or absorbed by the body in sufficient amount.

Body Stuffer

An individual who rapidly swallows poorly wrapped packets of illicit drugs to evade imminent police detection.

Mees' Lines

Transverse white lines across the nails associated with chronic arsenic poisoning.

Burton Line

A blue-black line along the gingival margins classically associated with chronic lead poisoning.

Vitriolage

A criminal assault involving the throwing of corrosive acid onto a person, causing burns, severe scarring, and potential eye injury.

Ophiotoxaemia

The medical condition of systemic poisoning caused by snake venom.

Tetrodotoxin

A potent neurotoxin found in pufferfish that blocks voltage-gated sodium channels, preventing nerve and muscle action potentials.

Cortical Death

The irreversible loss of higher cortical functions; not legally synonymous with death in many jurisdictions.

Brain-Stem Death

The irreversible cessation of all brain-stem functions, including consciousness and the capacity for spontaneous breathing.

Inquest

A formal statutory inquiry conducted by an authorised official into the cause and circumstances of specified deaths.

Hanging

Compression of the neck by a ligature that is tightened by the gravitational weight of the victim's body.

Spalding Sign

A radiological sign of intrauterine fetal death characterised by the overlapping of fetal cranial bones.

Deuel Halo Sign

A radiological indicator of intrauterine fetal death marked by the presence of scalp oedema forming a radiolucent halo.

Robert Sign

A radiological sign of intrauterine fetal death indicating the presence of gas within the fetal circulatory system or chambers.

Micturition Syncope

A transient loss of consciousness occurring during or immediately following urination, typically caused by reflex vasodilation, bradycardia, and postural hypotension.

Attitude

A relatively enduring set of beliefs, feelings, and behavioural tendencies held toward a person, object, or situation.

Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council (BMDC)

The statutory regulatory body responsible for medical and dental registration and professional disciplinary regulation in Bangladesh.