On 8 December 2014, The highly concerned Fudan University poisoning case was tried in Shanghai. Suspect Lin Senhao retracted his confession on the spot, denying that he had any motive for poisoning, saying that poisoning was only [April Fool’s Day joke]. What is even more shocking is that defense expert and forensic Hu Zhiqiang claimed: According to the autopsy results of Huang Yang, Huang Yang’s death was fulminant hepatitis B, not N-dimethylnitrosamine poisoning. This remark has aroused heated discussion on the Internet.
The court has its own judgment on the defense. As bystanders, we might as well understand N-dimethylnitrosamine and fulminant hepatitis B before making an evaluation.
Is N-Dimethylnitrosamine what?
N-dimethylnitrosamine is a semi-volatile organic chemical with weak smell and taste. It is easily soluble in water, alcohol, ether, etc. It is a highly toxic substance and can invade human body through inhalation, intake and percutaneous absorption. It has strong hepatotoxicity and can cause cancer after repeated long-term intake or one impact. Also known as dimethylnitrosamine.
How toxic is dimethylnitrosamine?
Although dimethylnitrosamine is a highly toxic substance, However, it is not uncommon and widely exists in drinking water and food. Dimethylnitrosamine can be naturally generated by dimethylamine and nitrite under acidic conditions, so it is high in pickled food, beer and tobacco smoke. The US Environmental Protection Agency stipulates that the maximum allowable concentration of dimethylnitrosamine in drinking water is 7 ng/mL.
The toxicity of a drug, It is often evaluated by [lethal dose 50], which literally means the dose of drugs that can cause half of the deaths in a considerable number of experimental animals. The oral lethal dose 50 of dimethylnitrosamine rats is 58 mg/kg, which is far lower than cyanide, nicotine, ricin, sarin gas, etc., so the control is relatively loose and relatively easy to obtain.
Because dimethylnitrosamine has definite hepatotoxicity and carcinogenic effects, the medical profession likes to use dimethylnitrosamine to induce animal models of liver cancer or liver fibrosis, because it has hepatotoxicity, genotoxicity and immunotoxicity at the same time, and the formed animal models are stable and not easy to fade away.
This is precisely the subject of Lin Senhao’s research.
As for the lethal dose of dimethylnitrosamine poisoning, No official data are available. According to WHO data, two patients died after taking dimethylnitrosamine 250-300 mg each time four times in two years. It is impossible to know how much dimethylnitrosamine Huang Yang drank, but the smell and taste of this chemical substance are very weak. He felt peculiar smell at the first sip, and the estimated dose is not low.
Is what fulminant hepatitis B?
The so-called fulminant hepatitis B is acute liver failure caused by hepatitis B virus, which can occur after acute infection with hepatitis B virus or when chronic hepatitis B virus infection deteriorates. The necessary condition is infection with hepatitis B virus.
Is Huang Yang fulminant hepatitis B?
Defense expert Hu Zhilin pointed out that Huang Yang’s [hepatitis B two-and-a-half] test on April 3 was positive for surface antibodies, and the subsequent three reexaminations were all positive for three antibodies. He believed that this was caused by Huang Yang’s infection with hepatitis B virus.
Can this statement hold water?
Hepatitis B surface antibody is a protective antibody, which represents that the human body has immunity to hepatitis B virus. It is most common in the state of successful immunization with hepatitis B vaccine or after recovery from infection with hepatitis B virus.
Some people may ask, not to say that infection with hepatitis B virus will form chronic? Huang Yang had no history of hepatitis B before!
The vast majority of patients infected with hepatitis B virus in infancy will become chronic patients, However, after adults are infected with hepatitis B virus, more than 90% can heal themselves, that is, unconsciously, they become positive for all three antibodies. Sometimes the concentration of e antibody and core antibody is not so high, and the test will lead to positive surface antibody alone, positive surface antibody and any one antibody or positive three antibodies.
In any case, as long as the surface antibody is positive, it proves that the person is immune to hepatitis B virus. Although there are also reports of hepatitis B occurring again after the surface antibody is positive, this kind of situation is extremely rare, and evidence of positive virus DNA is required to diagnose. What is the possibility of Hu Zhilin’s so-called [special circumstances]?
Hu Zhilin, as a defense expert, proposed that Huang Yang died of fulminant hepatitis B. As a well-known forensic doctor, perhaps he knows better than us how likely this cause of death is. As a defense strategy, this is really clever. Because the prosecution must provide relevant evidence to deny this possibility, I’m afraid this is also what they did not expect, right?
Author: Nuclear War Beauty
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