title: Postmortem electrical excitability of skeletal muscle: preliminary investigation of an animal model.
abstract: Presented is a preliminary study of the feasibility of using an animal model to investigate the postmortem time-dependent decay in muscular response, when subjected to electrical stimulation and to develop an animal model for the assessment of the use of electrical excitability as a method for determining the postmortem period of a human corpse. Analysis of the results shows a correlation between the rate of decay of muscular response with the postmortem interval.
authors.affiliation: Medical Systems Engineering Research Unit, ENGIN, University College of Cardiff, Wales, UK.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barasi
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Nokes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors