Evaluation of Morphological Changes in Blood Cells of Human Cadaver for the Estimation of Postmortem interval

Numerous cells in blood shows varying degree of postmortem changes and these occurring cellular changes could be utilized to estimate death interval. The present study aims to evaluate the morphology of blood cells in human cadaver to determine time since death. The study comprises of 80 blood samples drawn from 60 male and 20 female, their age ranging from 4 year to 70 year. It was noted that lymphocytes are most resistant blood cells to autolytic changes, the neutrophils are intermediate and monocytes and eosinophils are affected early. Similarly RBCs can be identifiable up to 18-hour postmortem and platelets up to 20-hour postmortem interval. Thus, the method can be a useful supplementary procedure to estimate death interval in early postmortem period.