AURICULAR CARTILAGE AS A TOOL FOR POSTMORTEM INTERVAL ESTIMATION IN HUMAN

Abstract

Background: An accurate estimation of the postmortem (PM) interval, despite of being a routine daily forensic expert work, is still a challenging practice. Science continues growing in this topic. Cartilage is a specific avascular, non-lymphatic, and non-nervous specific connective tissue. Objectives: This work aimed to assess the use of auricular elastic cartilage as a tool for estimation of late PM interval in human. Methods: Biopsies were taken from ear cartilages of 43 victims how died from suspicious criminal causes. Routine haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) was performed. The following histopathological parameters were examined, perichondrium, the number of lacunae with chondrocytes, nuclear material, and extracellular matrix. Scoring system was used for each parameter in different postmortem (PM) interval. Results: Cases were classified to 3 groups (1-7, 8-14, and 15-21 days PM). The examined 4 histological parameters give statistically significant changes across the tested PM interval. Correlation coefficient between the 4 parameters and PM interval give significant results. The r value was highest with percentage of lacunae without chondrocytes and lowest with perichondrium loss (r = 0.62 and 0.35 respectively). Conclusion: Auricular cartilage showed remarkable changes that are correlated with PM interval in human. In the future, large sample should be used with studying the impaction of environmental factors on these changes.