A novel method for the diagnosis of drowning by detection of Aeromonas sobria with PCR method.
The acid digestion method has been widely used for the diagnosis of death by drowning, but it is not always sensitive. However, there has been no definitive method to replace acid digestion until now. We speculate that bacteria are more useful markers than plankton for the diagnosis of death by drowning. In this study, from the preserved blood samples of 32 freshwater drowning cases, specific DNA fragments of Aeromonas sobria, one of the most common aquatic bacteria, were examined using PCR. The DNA fragments of the bacterium were detected from 27 of 32 cases with first round PCR or nested-PCR. The remaining 5 cases in which bacterial DNA was not detected had longer storage periods for the blood samples and shorter time intervals from drowning to death. These results indicate that the present method can be applied to the diagnosis of death by drowning.
Aoyagi
Miwako
M
Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan. miwako-a@jikei.ac.jp
Iwadate
Kimiharu
K
Fukui
Kenji
K
Abe
Shuntaro
S
Sakai
Kentaro
K
Maebashi
Kyoko
K
Ochiai
Eriko
E
Nakamura
Mihoko
M
D000333:Aeromonas / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004332:Drowning / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004269:DNA, Bacterial