Postmortem blood glucose level: How useful to envisage the time since death

Estimating the time since death is one of the prime objectives of conducting Medico-legal autopsies. The exact time of death can be known from hospital records, police investigation report etc. But at times, it is difficult to predict when such records are not available. Various methods have been experimented using biological fluids like blood, vitreous humor, synovial fluid, urine etc. to determine time lapse with varying degree of success. After somatic death, blood components undergo biochemical changes at every tissue. This principle can be utilized effectively to predict time since death in routine forensic practice where time of death is uncertain.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the relationship of postmortem blood glucose level with time elapsed from death on thirty-nine postmortem blood samples of time registered deaths of an adult occurred at our hospital.

The 10 ml of jugular venous blood was collected from each autopsy case. Blood glucose level was estimated by glucometer. The results were correlated with time since death.

Significant difference between blood glucose level before death (125.32 ± 489.29) and after death (56.73 ± 42.00) was observed. When the time interval since death (884.11 ± 489.29 min)were compared with difference in blood glucose level (68.59 ± 57.76mg/dl) shows high significance (p<0.0001). Similar significance (p<0.0001) were noted when the time interval since death were compared with rate of fall (0.103 ± 0.093 mg/dl min) of glucose level.

Estimation of postmortem blood glucose level doesn't provide any specific pattern of fall. Hence, it cannot be recommended for estimation of time since death as individual parameter.