title: Amount of postmortem bleeding: an experimental autopsy study.
abstract: An experimental autopsy study was performed on 64 cases (55 male, 9 female; average age 51.5 +/- 16.2 years) of sudden natural (38 cases) and asphyxic deaths (26 cases). The study objective was the amount of postmortem bleeding from postmortem cutting of the thoracic aorta, related to the time since death. The amount of postmortem bleeding ranged from 100 to 1300 cm, 440.6 +/- 268.1 cm on average. The time since death up to the autopsy time ranged from 4 to 72 hours, 19.4 +/- 12.9 in average. A statistically significant correlation between the amount of postmortem bleeding and postmortem time interval was stated: Pearson correlation test value r = -0.461 (P = 0.000): the shorter the time interval, the larger the amount of bleeding. The formula of linear regression was estimated according to this correlation: amount of postmortem bleeding (cm) = -9.571 x time since death (h) + 626.659. This proves that the amount of postmortem bleeding (eg, from aortic blunt rupture) could be about 620 cm.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. bobanvladislav@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nikolic
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Atanasijevic
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Micic
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Djokic
authors.forename: Dragan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Babic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000293:injuries*; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000097:blood; D001344:Autopsy; D003645:Death, Sudden; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors