Serum enzymes changes after death & its correlation with time since death.

Estimation of time since death is one of the primary objectives of an autopsy. Forensic Scientists and researchers have been persevering hard to find out methods of accurate determination of postmortem interval since long. However, the concept of “Postmortem Clocking” so far seems to be a distant dream only. The favorite biological fluids, to study postmortem biochemical changes, have been those which withstand putrefactive changes for longer duration, like vitreous humor, cerebrospinal fluid, pericardial fluid etc. In blood, markers like electrolytes, urea, creatinine, glucose etc have been more commonly studied. Enthusiastic studies have been undertaken by various researchers to find out reasonably reliable methods of estimating postmortem interval by studying serial quantitative changes in serum levels of various enzymes and to extrapolate the data obtained therefore in terms of duration of death. However, the accuracy of such an opinion remains big area of concern even today, as the range of duration is mostly too wide to be practically useful.

Significance of gammaglutamyl transferase estimation in hepatobiliary diseases.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the significance of gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) in hepatobiliary diseases and made to prove the GGT as a significant differential factor in diagnosis of high serum alkaline phosphatase conditions. In 166 patients of hepatobiliary diseases.The results were compared with 32 healthy age matched volunteers, patients were subjcted to detailed clinical examination and laboratory investigations. Blood samples were collected for estmation of serum Bilirubin, AST, ALT, ALP and GGT. Ratio of serum AST/ALT and serum ALP levels were significantly (P<0.001) increased in alcoholic liver disease and hepatic carcinoma. The results give enough evidence of increased GGT in microsomal induction by alcohol and other factors.