Are postmortem biochemical analysis done routinely in your areas for determining either time since death or cause of death? Is it really useful in the present context?
Dear nilesh,
in Germany where I am from and in the UK. Blood test are not done routinely after death has occured. One exeption at least in Germany are trafiic accidents when alcohol or drugs are possibly involved.
Even during an autopsy blood is not taken routinly for toxicology. I have no figures for Germany but the Senior Coroner,s statistics 2012 for England & Wales gives the following rates for all autopsies
Level 1 autopsy only 67%, With histology 20 % and / or Toxycology 13 %
Genetics are performed here very rarely (no figures for that)
As you know probably much better then I do it's the costs that are the limiting factor.
In deaths (natural or not) occurring outside a hospital without an Inquest or. Autopsy there is never a blood testing.
I hope this helps. The source is below, the link is attached
Greetings
Stephan
Coroners Statistics 2012 England and Wales
Ministry of Justice Statistics
https://www.google.de/#q=Coroners+Statistics+2012+England+and+Wales+
Thank you Heberger and Ricey.sir.
Sir the reason for this question was that many a times we dont get any gross, microscopic. Or toxicological findings in cases of sudden death.
in such cases can the biochemical analysis be of some help in opining cause of death.
In Mexico, the biochemical tests are not routinely practiced. The major limiting, as in other countries, apparently even in England and Germany, is cost. Cases of sudden death should be sampled for clinical and toxicological research, when there are no obvious macroscopic findings to confirm the cause of death. Traffic accidents are sampled for toxicological purposes only, and at the request of the prosecutor. Academic work requires continuous biological sampling. The regular practice of autopsies, allows constant epidemiological monitoring and store useful information for medical research. In our opinion, biochemical analysis should be made routinely, as it allows us to complement the diagnosis, and in many cases intuit it. Sadly, governments are not aware of the importance of the work of the coroner, and is common budget constraint, now I see that even in developed countries. Greetings!
The biochemical investigations are not performed in routine autopsys cases in my country. Some author report some cases of utilize of this methods, see Palmieri et al.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301901147_Postmortem_biochemistry_in_suspected_starvation-induced_ketoacidosis
Article Postmortem biochemistry in suspected starvation-induced ketoacidosis
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