title: Algor mortis: an erroneous measurement following postmortem refrigeration.
abstract: Determination of the time of death is one goal of medicolegal death investigations. Algor mortis has been used as a measure of the postmortem interval (PMI). We prospectively recorded the core temperatures of 19 adult bodies entering our morgue cooler and at 3, 6, and 9 h of refrigeration. We then compared the cooling rate with the calculated body mass index (BMI). For each individual body, the rate of cooling was fairly linear with no evidence of a plateau. There was fair to moderate correlation between the BMI and the cooling rate: cooling rate = -0.052 (BMI) + 3.52. The probability of linearity in any given case was 36%. Variables affecting this correlation included the presence and the layers of clothing and if the clothing was wet. Our data confirm that algor mortis is of very limited utility in determining the PMI in bodies that have been refrigerated.
authors.affiliation: Broward County Medical Examiner's Office and Trauma Services Division, 5301 SW 31st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312, USA. kwardak@broward.org
authors.forename: Khalil S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wardak
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001831:Body Temperature; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012034:Refrigeration; D013997:Time Factors