Analysis of the Absorbance Pattern of Postmortem Blood Sample Using Spectrometer

Biomedical Research Institute and Emergency Medical Center, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea, Department of Forensic Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea

E-mail: jtpark@jnu.ac.kr

The diagnosis of cause of death (COD) or estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) is hard to perform using postmortem blood or other bodily fluids due to various biochemical changes that occur during the agonal phase or after death. To solve these problems, new paradigms and new analytical methods are needed. In this study, postmortem blood was fractionated with specific gravity 1.021, 1.029, 1.038, and 1.045, and the absorbance patterns of each sample of the 131 total cases (12 kinds of COD) were analyzed using a spectrometer. The absorbance was grouped into 9 patterns (ABS pattern 1 to 9) according to the wave length and the signal intensity. These patterns of postmortem blood were found to be distinctly different from the absorbance pattern of fresh blood. The analysis of ABS patterns is useful for the diagnosis of deaths due to acute or rapid bleeding, fire death, drowning and, in some cases, poisoning, but is not useful for the estimation of PMI.

Key Words: Spectrometry; Absorbance pattern; Cause of death; Postmortem interval