Forensic biochemistry for functional investigation of death: concept and practical application

The essential tasks of forensic pathology involve investigation of the cause and process of death, especially in traumatic and unexpected sudden deaths, largely including unwitnessed deaths. Thus, agonal and postmortem interference is inevitable and unpredictable in all forensic procedures; this is not particular to forensic biochemistry, but also occurs in morphology and toxicology. Therefore, findings should be assessed based on the postmortem data established through serial investigations of autopsy materials using easily accessible standardized procedures. With respect to this, biochemical procedures have advantages of standardization, quality assurance, quantitative analyses, statistic assessment and availability of multiple markers, despite several problems involved in the selection and collection of materials and applicability of analytical procedures. The main purpose of using postmortem biochemistry as well as molecular biology is to investigate the systemic pathophysiological changes involved in the death process that cannot usually be detected by morphological methods; these may be called 'pathophysiological vital reactions'. These procedures can provide useful support for pathological evidence by 'visualization' of functional alterations, and are also essential for the pathognomonic assessment of both the cause and process of death as part of routine laboratory investigations involved in 'full autopsy' in the context of social risk management.