title: An experimental evaluation of electrical skin conductivity changes in postmortem interval and its assessment for time of death estimation.
abstract: In forensic medicine, estimation of the time of death (ToD) is one of the most important and challenging medico-legal problems. Despite the partial accomplishments in ToD estimations to date, the error margin of ToD estimation is still too large. In this study, electrical conductivity changes were experimentally investigated in the postmortem interval in human cases. Electrical conductivity measurements give some promising clues about the postmortem interval. A living human has a natural electrical conductivity; in the postmortem interval, intracellular fluids gradually leak out of cells. These leaked fluids combine with extra-cellular fluids in tissues and since both fluids are electrolytic, intracellular fluids help increase conductivity. Thus, the level of electrical conductivity is expected to increase with increased time after death. In this study, electrical conductivity tests were applied for six hours. The electrical conductivity of the cases exponentially increased during the tested time period, indicating a positive relationship between electrical conductivity and the postmortem interval.
authors.affiliation: Electronics and Communications Engineering Department, Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: icanturk@yildiz.edu.tr.
authors.forename: İsmail
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Cantürk
authors.affiliation: Computer Engineering Department, Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fethullah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Karabiber
authors.affiliation: Council of Forensic Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Safa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Çelik
authors.affiliation: Council of Forensic Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: M Feyzi
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Şahin
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul Medeniyet University, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yağmur
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Fatih University, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sadık
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology / Q000379:methods*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012867:Skin
keywords: Body mass index; Electrical conductivity; Forensic medicine; Postmortem interval; Time of death estimation