Study on the relationship between postmortem interval and electrical conductivity of different tissues / 中国法医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the electrical conductivity of cerebrum, liver, lung and muscle of rats at different postmortem intervals for investigating the relationship between EC and PMI. Methods Healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were sacrificed and kept at constant temperature of 25°C. Cerebrum, lung, liver and muscle were extracted at different PMIs of immediate (0d), 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d and 7d, and their extraction liquids were prepared with ultrapure water at the ratio of 1g10mL. EC were separately determined for different tissues and organs. The relationships between EC of different tissues and organs and PMI were analyzed and their regression functions were established. The characteristics of EC values for four tissues and organs were compared and their decomposition processes were discussed. Results EC of brain and muscle showed no significant changes within 1d, and increased rapidly during 2~7d; but EC of liver and lung started to increase within 1d and increased rapidly during 2~7d.The relationship between EC of different tissues and organs and PMI were well fitted with cubic equations and liver gained the highest coefficient (R2=0.96). Additional, the EC of four organs presented various increasing laws in different periods of PMI. Conclusion The EC of cerebrum, lung, liver and muscle of rats were well fitted with PMI and the determination of EC of cadaver tissues can be expected to become an effective method for PMI estimation in forensic practice.