title: The role of vitreous magnesium quantification in estimating the postmortem interval.
abstract: The use of magnesium as a parameter to estimate the time of death is controversial. In 32 traumatic deaths with known postmortem intervals (PMIs), small quantities of vitreous humor (VH) were sampled repetitively every 3 h until 24 h postmortem. The bodies were kept at the constant ambient temperature of 20°C (68°F). The concentrations of magnesium were in the range of 0.47-1.15 mM. A statistically significant correlation of the concentration of magnesium with the PMI was observed (r = 0.453, p < 0.01), but with small predictive value--coefficient of variation for regression was 45.5%; the average of the paired differences between the estimated and actual PMIs was 5.24 + 3.19 h. Although useful results might be expected due to the large transmembrane gradient for magnesium, the results of this study strongly disprove the usefulness of measuring magnesium in VH to estimate the time of death.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forensic Medicine "Milovan Milovanovic", School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Deligradska 31a, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia.
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mihailovic
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Atanasijevic
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Popovic
authors.forename: Miroslav B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Milosevic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008274:Magnesium / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D013048:Specimen Handling; D014822:Vitreous Body / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D008274:Magnesium
keywords: forensic science; magnesium; postmortal biochemistry; postmortem interval; repetitive sampling; vitreous humor