[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-412660-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-412660-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","postmortem-vitreous-humour-analyses-a-review-of-forensic-applications","Postmortem Vitreous Humour Analyses - A Review of Forensic Applications","","Review of vitreous humor analyses in forensic medicine, emphasizing how properly documented autopsy findings may still require toxicologic, hematologic, bacteriologic, and chemical investigations. The paper explains why vitreous humor is protected, well preserved, and readily obtained for chemical and toxicologic measurements. It surveys literature on estimating time of death using vitreous glucose and later potassium changes, addressing stability, variability, environmental influence, and confidence limits. It also reviews forensic ethyl alcohol determination using gas chromatography and compares vitreous humor with blood while discussing advantages over clotting and autolytic alterations.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/","Healthcare",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/postmortem-vitreous-humour-analyses-a-review-of-forensic-applications/412660/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/postmortem-vitreous-humour-analyses-a-review-of-forensic-applications/412660.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Jiven","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",9,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why is vitreous humor considered useful in forensic investigations?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Vitreous humor is a protected, well preserved liquid that can be easily withdrawn in sufficient quantity for chemical and toxicologic measurements, and it can reflect antemortem states better than postmortem blood in some cases.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How is potassium in vitreous humor used to estimate time of death?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Potassium concentration in vitreous humor rises as the death interval increases. Studies evaluate confidence limits, stability of sodium and chloride, and variability due to serum potassium levels and potential sources such as vascular choroid and retinal cells.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What advantages does vitreous humor provide for postmortem ethyl alcohol measurement?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Using vitreous humor helps avoid clotting factors and autolytic changes in blood that can alter red cell and serum ratios, offers an uncontaminated specimen, and may better approximate ethyl alcohol levels in the brain.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},412660,1791035355,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,115,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":107,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":107,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1099513958607,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002390cf8733938c?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778829742770036399","GAZETTE  \nFrom The SOUTHWESTERN INSTITUTE OF FORENSIC SCIENCES Dallas Texas  \n# EDITOR'S NOTE:\n\nThis month is the 70th birthday of Dr.MiltonHelpern,The Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.His past and present students presented him with a seriesof papers as a Festschrift in his honor.The followingpaper was submitted by the editor.  \n# POSTMORTEM VITREOUSHUMORANALYSES:A REVIEW OF FORENSICAPPLICATIONS\n\n-William Q.Sturner,M.D.  \n# INTRODUCTION\n\nThe proper determination of the cause and mannerof death is the cornerstone of the Medical ExaminerSystem and the“raison d'etre”of the forensicpathologist.The completely performed and thoroughlydocumented autopsy will usually reveal significantdisease and/or injury and thus satisfy the abovedemands,but in some instances toxicologic,hematologic,bacteriologic,and even chemical alterationsexist which necessitate further investigation and separatediagnostic procedures.Autolytic changes occurring inpostmortem blood rapidly change many substanceswhich might have proven helpful in assessing theterminal chemical state of the body.Such findingsprompted the examination of other fluids at the time ofautopsy which could better reflect the antemortemstate.The vitreous humor of the eye has provided aprotected,well preserved,easily withdrawn clear liquidof sufficient quantity for both chemical and toxicologicmeasurements.It is the purpose of this paper to reviewthe recent observations in the literature regarding uses ofthis medium,comment on investigations presently beingundertaken and project future applications of vitreoushumor analysis to forensic medicine.  \n# TIME OF DEATH\n\nIt would appear that the first recorded chemicalstudy of human vitreous humor was made in enucleatedspecimens following trauma(Ask,1927,Magitot andLenoir,1932)in which the concentration of glucose wasdetermined.During this same period,a number ofanimal observations were being recorded by Duke-Elder,Davson,and other pioneers in opthalmologic research.Reddy and Kinsey,and others have continued similar  \nwork until the present time.In 1959,Naumann madethe first description of the range of numerous chemicalsubstances in cadaver vitreous humor.It was during thesame year that Gantner,Sturner,and Caffrey attemptedto correlate time of death with the level of ascorbic acid,known to be of high concentration in the eye,but thefindings in both aqueous and vitreous humor were foundto be unsuitable for this purpose.These results wererecorded in 1962.  \nIn 1951,Mason and his colleagues reported theinitial study of postmortem cerebrospinal fluid whichindicated a progressive rise in the concentration ofpotassium as the death interval increased;subsequentobservations by others revealed comparable findings.Bythis time,it had been shown that the concentration ofpotassium in the vitreous humor parallels that of theserum in many experimental animals,as well as in man.Several studies were thus conducted to determine therelationship of this rise in potassium to the postmorteminterval employing human vitreous humor as themedium.  \nJaffe was not only the first to demonstrate thatsuch an increase took place,but by showing the stabilityof sodium and chloride over lengthy postmortemintervals,he confirmed that such a change had norelationship to evaporation;he further suggested that thevascular choroid and retinal cells were potential sourcesfor the potassium ion.Sturner and Gantner observed thisphenomenon in their series and further emphasized thevariability in the concentration of serum potassium atdeath in hospitalized patients and how this mightinfluence the expected postmortem potassium values.These authors and Lie calculated that a confidence limitof±5 hours can be used in the estimation of time ofdeath.Sturner and Gantner also indicated that thestandard error did not increase as the postmorteminterval became greater.However,Adelson et al,Hughes,Hansson et al and Coe have all demonstrated that theconfidence limit of this technique exceeded±10 hoursf","cbCaihdux5szdHnB","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihdux5szdHnB","pdf",2264129,"English","# Editor's Note\n# Postmortem Vitreous Humour Analyses - A Review of Forensic Applications\n# Introduction\n## Time of Death\n## Ethyl Alcohol","[{\"question\":\"Why is vitreous humor considered useful in forensic investigations?\",\"answer\":\"Vitreous humor is a protected, well preserved liquid that can be easily withdrawn in sufficient quantity for chemical and toxicologic measurements, and it can reflect antemortem states better than postmortem blood in some cases.\"},{\"question\":\"How is potassium in vitreous humor used to estimate time of death?\",\"answer\":\"Potassium concentration in vitreous humor rises as the death interval increases. Studies evaluate confidence limits, stability of sodium and chloride, and variability due to serum potassium levels and potential sources such as vascular choroid and retinal cells.\"},{\"question\":\"What advantages does vitreous humor provide for postmortem ethyl alcohol measurement?\",\"answer\":\"Using vitreous humor helps avoid clotting factors and autolytic changes in blood that can alter red cell and serum ratios, offers an uncontaminated specimen, and may better approximate ethyl alcohol levels in the brain.\"}]","Postmortem Vitreous Humour Analyses - A Review of Forensic Applications | PDF",1790592427,18]