Eye temperature measured after death in human bodies as an alternative method of time of death estimation in the early post mortem period. A successive study on new series of cases with exactly known time of death.

Abstract

The paper presents a continuation of the studies on time of death (TOD) estimation based on post-mortem temperature measurements in the human eyeball. In the current study, single (in 20 patients) or double (within a 1-hour interval in 10 patients) eyeball and rectal temperature measurements were taken in patients who died in the University Hospital Intensive Therapy Unit. The actual TOD in each patient was exactly known and the body temperature was recorded shortly after (between 50 min and 3 h 30 min). The temperature was measured using pin probes connected to a high precision electronic thermometer. The measured eye temperatures ranged from 27.4 to 33.7°C. The ambient temperature in all cases was stable (22 °C), which corresponded to the usual room temperature. Post mortem interval (PMI) was calculated using a formula based on Newton's law of cooling, previously successfully applied in comprehensive studies on pigs and recent studies on human bodies. Thanks to knowledge of the exact TOD and the stable ambient temperature, the current study on 30 new cases allowed the method to be improved by adjusting the mean value of the cooling constant and the initial eye temperature in comparison to recent studies.