Vitreous humor: A review of biochemical constituents in postmortem interval estimation

Abstract

Postmortem changes in the biochemical constituents of the vitreous humor have been widely used to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) over the past several decades. However, few reviews have summarized the relationship between the postmortem vitreous biochemical constituents and time of death. Herein, the relationship between PMI and single biochemical components, including vitreous potassium, hypoxanthine, and amino acids, as well as comparisons of each statistical parameter in the formula, is summarized. We also discuss other compounds such as urea and uric acid, which have no direct relationship with PMI. Utility of multiple constituent simultaneous analysis for estimating PMI is being increasingly investigated. The promising idea of using simultaneous analysis of multiple constituents to determine PMI is proposed as a future research direction.

Keywords

• Biochemical constituents
• multiple constituent analysis
• postmortem changes
• postmortem interval
• vitreous humor