Progress in Method and Reliability of Diatom Test in Drowning

Korean J Leg Med 2020;44:115-122

Department of Forensic Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Yangsan, Korea

E-mail: gyhuh@pusan.ac.kr

The forensic significance of the diatom test in diagnosing death due to drowning has been controversial for a long time as diatoms are detected in the non-drowning cases as well. This false positivity may originate from the antemortem as well as postmortem penetration of the diatoms into the bodies. Another problem with the diatom test is the lack of standardization among the different kinds of diatom extraction and identification methods. The author first reviewed the progress in the methods used in the diatom test and then studied the historical arguments in the diagnosis of drowning. Lastly, the research trend in the diatom test since 2000 was evaluated by classifying the manuscripts searched using the keyword “drowning and diatom” on PubMed. Recent studies tend to support the reliability of the diatom test in the diagnosis of drowning when quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed properly with maximum possible reduction in contamination during the preparation of the test samples.