Abstract

Context: Estimation of time since death has always remained an important requirement in medico legal as well as civil cases. In last few years researchers have studied various chemical tests to estimate the time since death. Body fluids which are available for such chemical examination are whole blood, serum, cerebrospinal fluid, aqueous humour and vitreous humour. Amongst all these available body fluids, the vitreous humour has been largely utilized and vitreous potassium concentration has become most widely used method to predict the time since death. Aims: To find the correlation between vitreous potassium, vitreous sodium and time since death. Settings and Design: The present study is prospective study done at B J Govt. Medical College during October 2012 to October 2014. Material and Methods: 207 cases brought for postmortem examination during study period were selected after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software to find coefficient of correlation, regression equation and ANOVA test was applied to study the significance. Observation and Results: The statistical analysis showed that there is no any significant correlation between time since death and vitreous sodium. However analysis showed a highly significant positive linear correlation between time since death and vitreous potassium concentration with regression equation as, y = 0.2115 (x) + 8.9122 with coefficient of correlation of + 0.8024. The rise was found up to 46 hours after death. The present study also showed that 95% confidence limit of over ± 17.14 hours limits the usefulness of this method in estimating time since death. Conclusion: The vitreous potassium is a very useful indicator for determination of time since death. However one should keep check on sampling errors and method of analysis, as it can make difference in the final results.

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