How reliable are parenchymal tissues for the evaluation of carbon monoxide poisoning? A pilot study

Dealing with burnt bodies, the forensic pathologist must first of all answer the question whether the victim was alive at the moment of the fire. This study aims at clarifying whether some human solid tissues may be reliably used for the forensic diagnosis of Co poisoning on burnt bodies providing no collectable blood during the autopsy. From 34 selected cases, both cardiac blood and parenchymal samples were collected to perform CO-oxymeter, spectrophotometry, and gas chromatography tests: blood CO estimations (blood COHb% and blood[CO]) and parenchymal[CO] values have been compared with special focus on R values. The solid tissues having the best correlations with blood CO amount turned out to be the lung (R 0.84), the liver (R 0.83), the kidney (R 0.79), and the spleen (R 0.92).