Comparison of morphological changes in white blood cells after death and in vitro storage of blood for the estimation of postmortem interval

Abstract

Estimation of the time of death is one of the most important problems for forensic medicine and law. Physical and chemical postmortem changes are evaluated together while estimating the time of death.In this study, in vitro storage and postmortem changes of white blood cells were aimed to be compared within the given postmortem interval, and a follow-up study was carried out. Blood smears which were obtained from 10 non-refrigerated cadavers (experimental group) and from 40 hospital patients (control group) have been evaluated to observe and compare changes during the in vitro storage and postmortem degenerative morphological changes that white blood cells undergo throughout the given postmortem intervals. The samples were examined by using a light microscope, and blood cells were differentiated by staining blood films with May–Grunwald stain, followed by Giemsa stain. Identifiable degenerated eosinophils and monocytes were first examined at 6h of death and the in vitro storage, and they were unidentifiable beyond 72h of storage. Identifiable degeneration of neutrophils were first examined at 6h of death and storage while unidentifiable beyond 96h of storage. Identifiable degeneration of lymphocytes were first examined at 24h of death, and they were still identifiable beyond 120h.Cellular changes of leukocytes can be useful in the 6–120h for estimating the time of in vitro storage, and the findings match during the first 21h for both experimental and control groups. Finally, this follow-up study and the comparison will also be carried out for a longer postmortem interval, and other specific hypothesis that relate cellular changes in tissues other than blood with time since death are various points that needs to be studied.