New approaches for forensic medicine

The post-mortem interval (PMI) is that period from death to discovery of a body; its precise and accurate estimation has always been at the centre of forensic pathologist research, is crucial to help establish the chronology of events surrounding death. Despite the numerous studies carried out over time, there is still no precise and reliable method to determine the exact time of death [1, 2]. For the increase interest in forensic medicine, the growth of road accidents and for what previously said, the research of new matrices, defined non- conventional, result fundamental for this field. First, a method was validated for cations quantification using a Dionex ICS 1600 equipped with a thermostated AS autosampler and a DS6 heated conductivity cell detector. It permits to quantify 10 cations in 60 minutes. An in vitro study was conducted, using real saliva samples and simulating the gastric fluid following Pharmacopoeia Eu (5.17.1). This part of the study is based on correlation between main macro-molecules linked to foods, avoiding them for PMI study. Real gastric fluids were analysed quantifying cation (with this validated method) and anions (with a previously validated method). All information about cause of death and PMI were gently furnished by coroner. Correlation between PMI and gastric fluid could be possible, but number of real samples analysed is too low to ensure the correct linearity. About anions, chloride and sulfate were the most present analytes, meanwhile for cations Ammonium and potassium were mostly found in real samples. These preliminary results suggest that ion detection may be useful in estimating the PMI.