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The cholesterol levels in median nerve and post-mortem interval evaluation.
G Vacchiano1, A Luna Maldonado2, M Matas Ros2
1Department of Law, Economics and Mathematical Methods-Legal Medicine Section, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy.
Forensic Science International
|February 1, 2016
Summary
Cholesterol levels in the median nerve increase over time after death. This study proposes a new method using these cholesterol changes to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI).
Area of Science:
- Forensic Science
- Biochemistry
- Neurology
Background:
- Accurate post-mortem interval (PMI) determination is crucial in forensic investigations.
- Current methods for PMI estimation have limitations.
- Cholesterol levels in biological tissues may change predictably after death.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cholesterol concentration changes in the median nerve over time.
- To develop and validate a novel method for estimating PMI based on median nerve cholesterol levels.
Main Methods:
- Median nerve samples were collected from 36 subjects during forensic autopsies.
- Cholesterol concentrations were measured at various post-mortem intervals (PMIs).
- A subset of 16 subjects had serial samples collected to establish a correlation between cholesterol levels and time since death, enabling back-calculation of PMI.
Main Results:
- A gradual increase in cholesterol concentration in the median nerve was observed with increasing time since death.
- A linear interpolation model showed good correlation coefficients, particularly for PMIs under 48 hours (R²=0.9362).
- The proposed method allowed PMI calculation with a narrow error range (-4 to 5.9 hours) for the best-correlated group.
Conclusions:
- Median nerve cholesterol levels show a reliable increase post-mortem.
- This biochemical marker offers a promising new method for post-mortem interval estimation.
- Further validation with larger sample sizes is recommended for broader application.
