Factors affecting strontium absorption in drownings.

This study examines the effects of age, gender, a cold water medium versus warm water medium, and salinity on strontium levels determined in left ventricular blood in drownings. Significant differences in the amount of strontium absorbed into the bloodstream (p<0.001) were detected between individuals who drowned in fresh water versus those drowning in seawater, and between those drowning in cold water versus warm water (p=0.030). However, no significant differences were noted in the strontium concentrations of left ventricular blood according to gender or age.

Comparison between lung weight and blood strontium in bodies found in seawater.

This paper examines the use of lung weight increase as an indicator of seawater drowning compared to the amount of Sr absorbed by the blood. The study population was limited to male victims older than 20 years. Significant differences between cases of drowning and "non-drowning" were detected in terms of the lung-heart weight ratio (L/H) (p<0.001) or lung-body weight ratio (L/B) (p=0.005). However, using lung weight (L), L/H or L/B to distinguish between seawater drownings and saltwater non-drownings some overlap was produced. The factor rendering least overlap was L/B, which also appeared to be non-dependent on the victim's age. Our findings suggest that a value of L/B higher than 19.5 g/kg could be a useful indicator of death by drowning, but that when a lower value is found, additional drowning diagnoses would be needed to establish the manner of death.

Diagnosing death by drowning in fresh water using blood strontium as an indicator.

The interpretation of the level of strontium (Sr) in blood has been demonstrated to be useful in the diagnosis of death by drowning occurred in sea water, but its use in fresh water drownings is not so evident because of the low Sr concentration present in most of fresh water media. In this paper, we show a survey of the results obtained in the casework analysis of Sr in ventricular blood used in the diagnosis of drowning in 144 bodies found immersed in fresh water over a period of 10 years. Thirty-two percent of the immersion cases examined could be diagnosed as drownings with a reasonable degree of confidence. It is thought that this percentage of positive diagnoses could be largely improved in the case of blood samples taken a few hours after death.

Blood strontium concentration related to the length of the agonal period in seawater drowning cases.

The levels of ventricular blood strontium (Sr) from 70 seawater drowning victims were compared with their diagnosis of drowning based mainly on certain criteria selected from their autopsy report. From this comparison, intervals of either the difference of Sr concentration between the left and the right ventricle blood (LVSr-RVSr) or the Sr concentration in the left ventricle blood (LVSr), appear to be related to different time-lapses of the agonal period of drowning. In the aim to diagnose drownings, intervals of both LVSr-RVSr and LVSr were proposed to characterize three different agonal periods in seawater drowning cases: instantaneous death (ID), fast vital-submersion drowning (FVSD) and common vital-submersion drowning (CVSD).

Study of the diagnostic value of strontium, chloride, haemoglobin and diatoms in immersion cases.

Tests of haemoglobin (Hb), strontium (Sr) and chloride (Cl), as well as diatoms, toxicological and pathological studies were performed in biological samples from 133 immersion fatalities occurred since 1991 to 1996 in central and northern Spain. Hb, Sr, and Cl where analyzed in blood samples where increasing decomposition could be demonstrated in most of the cases. The samples were frequently accompanied with well documented forensic reports, including autopsies findings and other circumstances of the death. The goal of our study is to evaluate the difference of blood Sr concentration between the left and right side of the heart (LVSr-RVSr) as a marker of drowning. For this purpose, the cases investigated were classified in 'typical drowning' (TD) cases and 'atypical drowning' (AD) cases. This last group was used as a control. The comparison of the LVSr-RVSr between TD and AD cases was highly significant (P = 0.0002) in blood specimens extracted from cases occurred in putative drowning media where Sr concentration was higher than 800 micrograms/l. No significant differences were found comparing neither Cl nor Hb biventricular concentrations between TD and AD cases in blood samples extracted from bodies found in both fresh and seawater.