Utilization of serum chloride level from post mortem blood in determination of time since death- a critical analysis

Abstract

The potential to unravel many unfolded medico legal mysteries lies within the post mortem clocking. Despite the large amount of research  undertaken, the post mortem interval remains one of the most challenging variables to be quantified and established. The aim of our project  was to study the pattern of serum chloride (cl-) concentration change after death and to correlate it with post mortem interval. Post mortem  blood samples collected from external jugular vein of total 150 subjects with documented time of death, were analyzed in a period of one &  half years during January 2020 to June 2021to assess the changing pattern of cl- concentration with respect to their time since death. Serum  cl- concentration was found to be decreased almost linearly with progression of time within 6-33 hours after death. Coefficient co-relation  of mean post mortem cl- concentration and time since death was (-0.94). Average decrease rate of serum cl- concentration was found to be  0.85meq/Lper hour. The present study also showed that 95% confidence limit of over ± 17.18 hours limits the usefulness of this method in  estimating time since death.