Differentiating Drowning from Postmortem Submersion in Freshwater with Estimation of Postmortem Submersion Interval.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Forensic Medicine and Clinical toxicology department, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Egypt

2 department of forensic medicine Minia university

3 Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology department, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Egypt

4 Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Egypt

5 Forensic Medicine and clinical Toxicology department, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Examining drowning-related fatalities continues to provide a substantial challenge for forensic experts in its diagnosis globally. Furthermore, techniques for calculating the postmortem interval (PMI) are not relevant to the remains recovered from water because of the intrinsic distinctions between terrestrial and aquatic systems, so we need to allocate new methods to estimate postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) in bodies recovered from water.
Aim: To develop reliable forensic methodologies for distinguishing between antemortem drowning and postmortem submersion in freshwater environments while establishing accurate techniques for estimating the duration of postmortem submersion intervals.
Methods: One hundred adult male albino rats were allocated into two groups: Group 1, rats drowned in freshwater until death, and Group 2, euthanized via cervical dislocation and thereafter submerged in water. Each group was subdivided into five subgroups where rats were dissected at 0, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours PM. After that, the lungs of rats were dissected and processed for histopathological and morphometric studies.
Results: Apoptotic cells and degenerated areas are significantly increased in drowned rats than in postmortem submersed rats, with significant differences with PMSI in each group. Both apoptotic cells and degenerated areas showed a significant strong correlation with PMSI in both groups, with high to moderate reliability in determining PMSI using simple regression analysis.
Conclusions: Apoptotic cells and degenerated areas are valuable for diagnosing drowning and estimating PMSI.
Keywords: drowning, postmortem submersion, postmortem submersion interval, apoptotic cells, and degenerative area.

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