title: Spectroscopic determination of skin viability. A predictor of postmortem interval.
abstract: We have demonstrated that skin viability decreases at a measurable rate following death in an animal model. The decreased skin viability was measured by fluorescein diacetate and ethidium bromide using fluorescence emission spectroscopy. There is significant decrease of the fluorescence intensity of the fluorescein diacetate assay between the 1-4 h, the 6-24 h, and the >40 h time points postmortem. For times between 6-24 h and >40 h postmortem the ethidium bromide assay showed consistent and significant increases in signal. The fluorescence measurements in this study showed that under the experimental conditions the time of death could be determined for <4, 6-24, and >40 hapotmotrem. The application of these assays in the field will require further study of the environmental factors.
authors.affiliation: Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Doukas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bamberg
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gillies
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kollias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019793:Fluorescein; D008297:Male; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D013552:Swine; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D019793:Fluorescein