Comprehensive study of various vitamin concentrations in the human postmortem blood with an autopsy case report of beriberi

Abstract

Using human cardiac blood from forensic autopsy cases, comprehensive measurements of albumin, vitamins A, B1, B6, B12, C, D, folate, and PIVKA-Ⅱ were performed. Of 128 cases, 83 were male, with an average age of 61.8 years and average postmortem interval of 44 h. The average concentrations of vitamins were 29.8 μg/dL for vitamin A, 32.2 μg/dL for vitamin B1, 278 ng/mL for vitamin B6 (pyridoxamine), 152 ng/mL for vitamin B6 (pyridoxal), 57.2 ng/mL for vitamin B6 (pyridoxal), 17.9 ng/mL for folate, 1188 pg/mL for vitamin B12, 23.5 μg/mL for vitamin C, 15.0 ng/mL for vitamin D, and 1.03 μg/mL for PIVKA-Ⅱ. An autopsy case of a Japanese middle-aged male with beriberi was also presented, where severe edema and effusion of the cavity and a high NT-proBNP serum value were observed; however, cardiac pathology showed no specific abnormal features. In the present case, the blood vitamin B1 concentration was within the standard clinical range. This study revealed that bloodborne water-soluble vitamin levels shows higher to clinical standard value at postmortem, whereas fat-soluble vitamin levels may stay in the standard range or lower. Our findings suggest that postmortem water-soluble vitamin concentrations within the clinical standard may reflect low antemortem vitamin concentrations.