Defined as the length of time between death and corpse discovery, the postmortem interval estimation is a crucial and fundamental step in medicolegal investigation of death, especially in unwitnessed deaths.
Evidence of the time elapsed since death may come from 3 sources and generally it is all of these 3 sources that should be explored and assessed before offering an opinion on when death occurred:
What I want to know is :- What is the single best method in each of these 3 sources ? Thank you.
There would be one best test if one had stable conditions concerning the other points. Usually, point 3 is some weak point, as, at least in forensic conditions, the dead may be unknown. It is always the global picture that counts, so you are condemned to gather pieces of a puzzle.
I agree with Dr. Ulbricht considerations. The determination of PMI is one of the most difficult task in forensic pathology as it depends of several conditions and circumstances. I mean you are referring to the PMI in the so called "fresh cadaver", which is the one situated in the 24 h period after death. In this cases, in my opinion the point 1 (dead body) offers the most valuable information taking into account the evolution of the cadaveric phenomena: algor mortis, rigor mortis and livor mortis) (cooling, rigidity and lividity). If you combine this three factors and confront them with other environmental factors, mainly the environment temperatura, you may calculate the PMI with great accuracy. Finally, in this 24 h period is of great help to have the level of the K+ in vitreous humor (Coe JL. Postmortem chemistry update. Emphasis on forensic application. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 1993;14:91-117.
I agrree with Dr. Lucena. However, in tropical climates (40 ° C, 80% humidity), eg., the influence of environment is very intense. So, I believe not be possible to choose only one criterion (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271530578_Chronothanatognosis_the_influence_of_the_tropical_climate_in_determining_the_post-mortem_interval)
Article Chronothanatognosis: the influence of the tropical climate i...
Dear colleagues, in regard to postmortem interval we, as forensic pathologists, ought to focus on the evaluation of the supravital reactions and postmortem changes that can occur within the early postmortem period - this is our competence. The evaluation of the environment and a deceased's daily activities may be quite problematic for us. We have quite good experience with the electric excitability of the skeletal muscles (within the context of main postmortem changes). Do you investigate electrical excitability of facial muscles routinely for PMI estimation?
For the case that you have both biological information (temperature etc.) and at the same time other, "qualitative" information, for example the last moment when the person was still seen alive, we have developed a method that calculates the 95%-interval, taking all of this information into account. We applied it also to a data set. The paper is here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073811000697
You may contact my co-author for a redy-made Excel sheet that calculates the PMI automatically based on our method.
you must consider also the contribution due to microbes in the body's change. New study published show the importance of microbiome for determine the postmortem interval.
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep29598
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