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Forensic Biochemistry

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Forensic Medicine and Human Cell Research

Part of the book series: Current Human Cell Research and Applications ((CHCRA))

Abstract

Pathophysiological diagnoses in autopsies made on the basis of morphological findings are vital aspects of autopsy diagnoses. To improve the accuracy of autopsy diagnoses, a variety of screening methods, including biochemical tests, are employed. However, most of these methods are currently used when resorting to biochemical test results in case of an autopsy diagnosis of a difficult case. Agonal or postmortem changes in variable affect most parameters assessed as part of biochemical testing in autopsies. Sporadic testing using a single parameter is therefore not useful to diagnosis. To obtain a screening tool that helps in identifying underlying diseases and clarifying the pathophysiology during the death process, it is important to collect samples from the appropriate site using appropriate methods or perform systematic biochemical testing where several items are being evaluated. Autopsies are the ultimate diagnostic tool requiring the most accurate and reliable diagnosis. To this end they need to include systematic biochemical testing as a routine tool. This paper summarizes the importance of biochemical testing, from the perspectives of systemic indices and tissue-specific indices, in a subset of biochemical tests available and reported to date.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is a restructured and summarized version of the paper “Contribution of Postmortem Biochemistry in Forensic Pathological Investigation of Death,” published in the Japanese Journal of Forensic Pathology in 2012, which summarizes the content of research done by our department to date. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Dr. Hitoshi Maeda, Professor Emeritus at Osaka City University, who kindly offered us the opportunity to engage in this research to complete this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Abeno Osaka, Japan

    Tomoya Ikeda, Naoto Tani & Takaki Ishikawa

  2. The Medico-legal Consultation and Postmortem Investigation Support Center (MLCPI-SC), Osaka, Japan

    Tomoya Ikeda, Naoto Tani & Takaki Ishikawa

  3. Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Abeno, Osaka, Japan

    Tomomi Michiue

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  1. Tomoya Ikeda
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  2. Naoto Tani
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  3. Tomomi Michiue
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  4. Takaki Ishikawa
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Correspondence to Tomoya Ikeda .

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  1. Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka, Japan

    Takaki Ishikawa

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Ikeda, T., Tani, N., Michiue, T., Ishikawa, T. (2019). Forensic Biochemistry. In: Ishikawa, T. (eds) Forensic Medicine and Human Cell Research. Current Human Cell Research and Applications. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2297-6_2

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