title: Double logarithmic, linear relationship between plasma sodium/potassium concentration ratio and postmortem interval during the 6-96-h postmortem period in rats.
abstract: Flame photometric determination of sodium and potassium concentrations in postmortem rat plasma (n = 40) revealed the existence of a linear and inverse relationship, of high correlation (r = -0.986; P less than 0.001), between the logarithm of the plasma sodium/potassium concentration ratio (PNa/PK) and the logarithm of postmortem interval (PMI) during the 6-96-h postmortem period. This relationship, which has not been reported previously in the forensic literature, offers a simple and potentially valuable means of estimating the PMI in man.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Cape Town Medical School, Observatory, Republic of South Africa.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Querido
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D010783:Photometry; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011188:Potassium / Q000097:blood*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012964:Sodium / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D012964:Sodium; D011188:Potassium