Volume: 55 Issue: 1
Year: 2024, Page: 156-159, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.1.156-159
Received: Oct. 13, 2023 Accepted: Dec. 27, 2023 Published: March 31, 2024
Post-mortem interval (PMI) is the time elapsed between death and the discovery of the body and its estimation is crucial in forensic pathology investigations. Numerous methods are available for PMI estimation. In humans, the vitreous potassium concentration (K+) has shown promise. The usefulness of the method in the estimation of PMI in dogs is explored in the current study. 25 dog carcasses were studied at the Department of Veterinary Pathology, CVAS, Pookode, Kerala and vitreous humour samples were collected and potassium concentration was quantified using the ion-selective electrode method. Concurrently, ambient temperatures were recorded. Our findings unveiled a significant positive correlation between vitreous potassium concentration and PMI. We derived an equation that incorporates ambient temperature. This equation serves as a valuable tool for field veterinarians, enabling them to estimate PMI in dog carcasses up to 96 hours. Consequently, vitreous humour emerges as a distinctive biosignature for accurate PMI estimation in dogs.
Keywords: Post-mortem interval, vitreous humour, potassium, dog, ambient temperature
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© 2024 Devika et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
: Devika, S., Pradeep, M., George, A.J., Anoopraj, R., Rajasekhar, R., Hamza, P., Pranav, O. and Athira, P.N.2024. Estimation of post-mortem interval using vitreous potassium levels in dogs. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55(1):156-159
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.1.156-159