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Updated: Jul 31, 2025
Author Spotlight: Engineering Molecular Tools for Disease Detection and Imaging
Published on: December 8, 2023
Detection of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in fabric urine stains older than five years
Takumi Minamiyama1, Masataka Kawamoto1, Ryota Matsunari1
1Department of Forensic Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Abstract:
Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is used in clinical medicine as a particularly important indicator to determine pregnancy. In this study, it was necessary to determine whether the urine spots on car seat fabric from a murder 5 years previously were from a pregnant woman. The HCG in the dried urine spot on a car seat was detected using an immunochromatography kit. It was found that the HCG in urine can be detected for much longer periods of time than the previously reported period of approximately 6 months.
