Abstract

Background: Estimating postmortem interval is effective forensic tool for investigating time of death useful in criminology. Many gross, microscopic and molecular methods available for estimating postmortem interval. Human prostate is last soft tissue organ to degenerate in human cadavers and its histopathology in cadavers can be used for estimation of post mortem interval. Studies reported Histopathologies of different organs to estimate postmortem intervals for purpose of calculating time since death. In our study we tried to observe Post mortem interval estimation in human cadavers with Histopathological changes in Prostrate. Objectives: To estimate postmortem interval from Histopathological examination of prostate in human cadavers and identify Histopathological changes in human prostate in relation to time since death. Methodology: Prostate from cadavers registered for autopsy in our institute were examined grossly along with histopathology as per criteria laid down for sampling. Results: Histopathological sections from total of 36 human cadavers were studied. Changes like epithelial disruption of acini, nuclear changes, inflammatory cell collection in stroma, fatty degeneration and sequential necrotic changes were reported in relation to time since death. Earliest degeneration changes in prostrate acini began at 6 hours postmortem and changes in stroma began at 12 hours. First atrophic changes in acini began at 19 hours postmortem and continued to progress till 3 days after which identification of any glandular or stromal tissue became extremely difficult. Conclusion: Significant changes in Prostrate were documented between 6 hours and 72 hours postmortem. Changes in human prostate can be used for estimating postmortem interval.

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