The Influence of Eyelid Position and Environmental Conditions on the Corneal Changes in Early Postmortem Interval: A Prospective, Multicentric OCT Study
Matteo Nioi,
Pietro Emanuele Napoli,
Roberto Demontis,
Alberto Chighine,
Fabio De-Giorgio,
Simone Grassi,
Vincenzo Scorcia,
Maurizio Fossarello,
Ernesto d’Aloja
Affiliations
Matteo Nioi
Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Pietro Emanuele Napoli
Eye Clinic, Department of Surgical Science, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Roberto Demontis
Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Alberto Chighine
Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Fabio De-Giorgio
Legal Medicine, Department of Health Surveillance and Bioethics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy
Simone Grassi
Legal Medicine, Department of Health Surveillance and Bioethics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy
Vincenzo Scorcia
Department of Ophthalmology, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Maurizio Fossarello
Eye Clinic, Department of Surgical Science, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Ernesto d’Aloja
Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
In the current study, using portable optical coherence tomography, we evaluated 46 corneas of 23 individuals in a multicenter setting during the first 17 h after death. Twenty-three eyes were kept open, and twenty three were kept closed. Furthermore, the experiment was carried out for 12 samples in summer and 11 in winter. Our data show that postmortem corneal alterations largely depend on the phenomena of dehydration (in particular in open eyes) and swelling of the stroma in closed eyes, probably due in the first phase to hypoxia/anoxia and subsequently to the passage by osmosis of the aqueous humor from the anterior chamber to the corneal tissue. Our findings could have significant repercussions in forensic pathology for estimating the postmortem interval and transplantation to optimize the conservation of the tissue before the explant.
