PMID- 24529770
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20141029
LR  - 20140217
IS  - 1872-6283 (Electronic)
IS  - 0379-0738 (Linking)
VI  - 236
DP  - 2014 Mar
TI  - Experimental studies on the tensile properties of human umbilical cords.
PG  - 16-21
LID - S0379-0738(13)00508-2 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.12.002 [doi]
AB  - When tried in court, mothers accused of neonaticide may claim that the umbilical 
      cord just broke during birth and the newborn child bled to death accordingly. To 
      evaluate the possibility of a breakage of the umbilical cord is the goal of this 
      work. Therefore 25 umbilical cords from neonates of both sexes born at term were 
      stretched using an electrically operated material testing machine and the energy 
      necessary to break them was measured. This experimental set-up equals a static 
      strain, not a dynamic one. The maximum force endured (F max) ranged from 37.24 N 
      to 150.04 N. The average force endured was 79.87 N with a standard deviation of 
      27.39. The elongation at break varied from 13.24% to a maximum of 119.93%. We 
      found no relationship between the force endured and any of the following 
      parameters: birth weight, pH of the venous umbilical blood, diameter of cord, 
      free length under testing, duration of pregnancy or the mother's age. We 
      performed a literature research and tried to define the circumstances in which a 
      break is more likely to occur, these being malformations, entanglement or 
      disease, e.g. inflammation.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
FAU - Tantius, Britta
AU  - Tantius B
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Melatenguertel 
      60/62, 50823 Cologne, Germany.
FAU - Rothschild, Markus A
AU  - Rothschild MA
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Melatenguertel 
      60/62, 50823 Cologne, Germany.
FAU - Valter, Markus
AU  - Valter M
AD  - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cologne University, Kerpener Str. 34, 
      50931 Cologne, Germany.
FAU - Michael, Joern
AU  - Michael J
AD  - Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, University of Cologne, Kerpener 
      Str. 62, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
FAU - Banaschak, Sibylle
AU  - Banaschak S
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Melatenguertel 
      60/62, 50823 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: sibylle.banaschak@uk-koeln.de.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20131216
PL  - Ireland
TA  - Forensic Sci Int
JT  - Forensic science international
JID - 7902034
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Birth Weight/physiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Fetal Blood
MH  - Gestational Age
MH  - Humans
MH  - Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
MH  - Infant, Newborn
MH  - Infanticide
MH  - Male
MH  - Maternal Age
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - Tensile Strength/*physiology
MH  - Umbilical Cord/anatomy & histology/*physiology
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Neonaticide
OT  - Precipitate delivery
OT  - Tensile strength
OT  - Umbilical cord
EDAT- 2014/02/18 06:00
MHDA- 2014/10/30 06:00
CRDT- 2014/02/18 06:00
PHST- 2013/01/24 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/08/07 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2013/12/03 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2014/02/18 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/02/18 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/10/30 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0379-0738(13)00508-2 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.12.002 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Forensic Sci Int. 2014 Mar;236:16-21. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.12.002. Epub 
      2013 Dec 16.