Estimation of Time Since Death by Potassium ion Level in the Vitreous Fluids: A Postmoterm Study in a Tertiary Care Center, South India

Abstract

Background: It is of great value to find time since death in the medicolegal investigations like serious crimes.Vitreous humor was more often used for the biochemical analysis as it is less contaminated or not affected by the putrefactive changes than other fluids of the body. It was stated by many researchers that potassium levels in the vitreous humour is more accurate in predicting time since death.Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the time since death using potassium level in the vitreous humorMethodology: This study includes 54 cases of victims brought to the tertiary care hospital based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Cases with known time of death and with clear vitreous humor samples were included. Baseline characteristics like name, age, gender, exact time since death was collected. Vitreoushumor was collected through appropriate standardized technique. Sampling time was also noted. The collected data was entered in MS excel and analysis done in SPSS 23 software. P value <0.05 is considered to be significant.Results: Majority of the study participants belongs to 57-67 years of age group (28%) followed by 27-37 years of age (22%).Male predominance was observed in our study 41(76%). There is a linear correlation found between the vitreous potassium concentration and the postmortem interval (R2=0.907). The rate of the vitreous potassium increase was 0.36 meq/hr (Coefficient of regression =2.76 meq/l/hr)Conclusion: There is a linear relationship found between vitreous potassium concentration and time since death.Thus potassium in the vitreous can be used for assessing the time since death.