Development of an instrument to measure postmortem lividity and its preliminary application to estimate the time since death.
A degree of postmortem lividity was related to a subcutaneous hemoglobin concentration, which can be measured by using light absorption. On the basis of this theory, the authors have developed an instrument utilizing a light to measure the degree of postmortem lividity. By using 42 corpses whose postmortem intervals were known, the authors examined the relationship between the actual postmortem intervals and the measurements, and found that there was significant correlation between them.
Department of Legal Medicine, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan.
M
M
Inoue
A
A
Suyama
T
T
Matuoka
T
T
Inoue
K
K
Okada
Y
Y
Irizawa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002423:Cause of Death; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
D006454:Hemoglobins