FEATURES OF DIAGNOSTICS OF FATAL KIDNEY INJURY IN MEDICAL PRACTICE

Area of Science:

• Forensic Science
• Postmortem Interval Estimation
• Thermoregulation

Background:

• Accurate determination of the time of death is critical in forensic investigations, especially in cases of mechanical trauma where the time of injury may differ from the time of death.
• Existing methods for estimating postmortem interval can be challenging, necessitating the development of novel, reliable techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate temperature changes over time in injured and uninjured kidney tissues relative to the time elapsed since trauma and death.
• To develop a multivariate regression model for estimating the time of death using temperature measurements from abdominal organs.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of tissue temperatures in 256 trauma victims (aged 20-60) using infrared thermometry within 24 hours postmortem.
• Inclusion of temperature data from liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, skin, and subcutaneous fat thickness.
• Development of a regression model incorporating organ temperatures, skin temperature, fat thickness, and ambient temperature.

Main Results:

• A statistically significant decrease in kidney tissue temperature was observed postmortem.
• Injured kidney tissues remained consistently warmer (2-3°C) than uninjured areas.
• The developed regression model accurately estimated the time of death (R² = 0.86), with all predictors being statistically significant (p<0.05).

Conclusions:

• A multivariate regression model utilizing temperature parameters from injured and uninjured parenchymal organs shows promise for forensic time of death estimation.
• Infrared thermometry offers a quantitative method for determining the post-injury interval and time of death in forensic practice.