Postmortem serum levels of total IgE.

Abstract

The first aim of this study was to assess whether non-allergic deaths in non-atopic individuals with increasing postmortem intervals are characterized by progressively greater concentrations of total IgE in postmortem serum from femoral blood. Our second goal was to determine whether traumatic deaths with different survival times, septic deaths, and deaths in individuals suffering from diseases with significant systemic inflammation are systematically characterized by increased concentrations of total IgE in postmortem serum from femoral blood. Four study groups were prospectively and retrospectively formed (non-allergic deaths in non-atopic individuals with increasing postmortem intervals, traumatic deaths in non-atopic individuals with different survival times, deaths possibly related to sepsis in non-atopic individuals, and deaths occurring in non-atopic individuals with disseminated malignancies at autopsy). Unenhanced computed tomography, autopsy, histology, and biochemistry were performed in all cases. First results indicate that increasing postmortem intervals are not associated with progressively increasing postmortem serum IgE levels. Moreover, the obtained results do not reveal that severe trauma, bacterial sepsis, and disseminated malignancies are systematically associated with increased postmortem serum IgE levels, irrespective of survival time duration. Though the usefulness of increased total IgE concentrations in postmortem samples to assess any underlying atopic disposition or death preceded by acute IgE-mediated allergic reaction remains questionable, measurements of total IgE are possible in postmortem serum samples.