[Electrical impedance and time of death in the animal model]

To study passive electric parameters of the rat skeletal muscles in relation to the time of death, investigations were carried out using the impulse distortion method of Pliquett. This measuring method enables the evaluation of the electric rectangular impulse distorted by the biological tissues, which contains any essential information on the passive electric properties of the object to be measured. The passive electric parameters change in the studied time interval up to 79 h post mortem in a characteristic fashion. The linear correlation of the evaluated impulse parameters at the time of death is closest (r = 0.75) between 0.5-8.5 h post mortem, the scatter of single values in late postmortal periods is in part considerable. A further development of the measuring technique and standardization of the measuring method let the passive electric parameters appear to be appropriate magnitudes for estimating the time of death.