Relationship between post-mortem interval and creatine concentration in vitreous humour and cerebrospinal fluid

Abstract

Many chemical-based methods have been examined for determination of the post-mortem interval (PMI) using body fluid. However, creatine, a non-protein nitrogen, has hardly been investigated over the last 20 years, even though the possibility of using it for PMI determination has been reported. The aim of the present study was to assess if creatine in vitreous humour and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) correlates with PMI. Fifty-one subjects underwent vitreous humour and 56 subjects underwent CSF creatine measurement, respectively. The results showed that the creatine concentration increased linearly in the CSF and vitreous humour until about 50 and 90 hours after death, respectively. In particular, the creatine concentration in CSF (Pearson correlation = 0.79, p < 0.01) until 50 hours post-mortem was more strongly correlated with PMI than that in vitreous humour (Pearson correlation = 0.55, p < 0.01). Regarding the vitreous humour creatine concentration and PMI, our results showed a broad range at 24 hours post-mortem.

Keywords:

• creatine
• post-mortem interval
• vitreous humour
• cerebrospinal fluid

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Ms Ebihara and Ms Yamasaki for their data input and arrangements.