Gross and Histologic Postmortem Changes of the Skin

Kovarik, Carrie L.; Stewart, David Tabb; Cockerell, Clay J.

doi:10.1097/01.paf.0000188087.18273.d2

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…The histological results differ from the descriptions of the gross and histological modification of human bodies in the outdoor, shaded, cool temperate climate given by Kovarik et al 28 ; although their analyses were performed within the first week from the deposition, the histological samples of skin showed 3 early modifications (cleavage of the dermoepidermal junction, sweat gland necrosis, dermal degenerations), which took place within the first 7 days from death. Instead, in the present study in samples encased in concrete, the skin histological structures seem to show a somewhat higher degree of preservation in time.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…Moreover, Kovarik et al, 28 in a recent article, studied the gross and microscopic appearance of skin in 3 individuals in an outdoor cool-temperate climate and showed focal dermal-epidermal separation, eccrine duct necrosis, and dermal degeneration. On the other hand, the microscopic changes of tissues in different environments have been rarely studied from a medicolegal perspective, sometimes because of the erroneous persuasion that histological analysis is useless in decomposed soft tissues.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Burial of Piglet Carcasses in Cement

Gibelli¹,

Giancamillo²,

Taborelli³

et al. 2013

American Journal of Forensic Medicine &Amp; Pathology

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Scarce experimental data exist describing postmortem effects of burial in cement. The scanty literature presents several case reports, but no experimental study. To perform a pilot study, the following experimental system was designed: 4 piglet corpses, who died of natural causes, were encased in concrete. After 1, 2, 3, and 6 months, a block was opened, and autopsy and microscopic analyses were performed. At the first month, initial putrefaction had started, and hindlegs were partly skeletonized. At the second month, both forelegs and hindlegs were partly skeletonized, and the abdomen and back showed advanced putrefaction. At the third month, the samples showed areas of mummification at the abdomen within a general context of initial putrefaction. At the sixth month, the sample showed wide adipocere formation. Histological findings revealed in some analyzed tissues (epithelium, dermis, adipose, and subcutaneous muscular tissues) a well-defined histological pattern even at 3 months after encasement in concrete: this means that microscopic changes may be delayed in concrete and that it may be worth performing histological analyses even in such kind of decomposed material.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Burial of Piglet Carcasses in Cement

Gibelli¹,

Giancamillo²,

Taborelli³

et al. 2013

American Journal of Forensic Medicine &Amp; Pathology

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show abstract

“…The most accelerated cutaneous decomposition occurs in hot weather, whereas freezing temperature or submersion of the body temporarily preserves the integrity of the skin. 9 Another histologic finding appreciated in many of the skin samples was a finding of sebaceous glands and hair follicles. The morphology of sebaceous glands and hair follicles appear normal for an approximately 18-hour PMI, and with increasing death interval, degeneration began.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, as well as insect activity, seem to be the most important factor affecting the skin in postmortem period. 9 The present study was undertaken to evaluate the histologic changes of the skin in hot weather and to identify morphological parameters that will help in determining the PMI in early postmortem period.…”

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confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Histologic Changes of the Skin in Postmortem Period

Bardale

Tumram

Dixit

et al. 2012

American Journal of Forensic Medicine &Amp; Pathology

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Determination of the time of death is an important consideration in forensic practice. Many methods have been attempted to accurately and systematically determine the postmortem interval (PMI). Histologic examination of the skin or appendages is one of the methods tried by few researchers. However, no attempt had been made to analyze the histologic changes in the skin and appendages simultaneously and to compare them with PMI. We sequentially studied the histologic changes of the skin and appendages in the early PMI. The results of the present study show that the skin undergoes progressive morphological changes in the postmortem period. The epidermis and the dermis appeared normal for 6 hours after death, and after this period, degenerative changes began. By 6 to 9 hours after death, degeneration began in the dermis, and by the end of 18 hours, the dermis began to disintegrate. The sweat glands appeared normal for approximately 3 to 4 hours. For 18 hours after death, the sebaceous glands and hair follicles appeared normal, and after this period, degeneration began.

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“…Conversely, real skin injuries are not useful to start method development: in vivo , real skin injuries will heal, whereas post mortem , injury shape tends to deteriorate, dry out and decay. In both instances, characteristic features are lost over hours and days following injury [23-25]. And we need considerable time: parameters of the 3D scanner and statistical evaluation all require repeated evaluation at first.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skin injury model classification based on shape vector analysis

2012

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Background: Skin injuries can be crucial in judicial decision making. Forensic experts base their classification on subjective opinions. This study investigates whether known classes of simulated skin injuries are correctly classified statistically based on 3D surface models and derived numerical shape descriptors.Methods: Skin injury surface characteristics are simulated with plasticine. Six injury classes – abrasions, incised wounds, gunshot entry wounds, smooth and textured strangulation marks as well as patterned injuries - with 18 instances each are used for a k-fold cross validation with six partitions. Deformed plasticine models are captured with a 3D surface scanner. Mean curvature is estimated for each polygon surface vertex. Subsequently, distance distributions and derived aspect ratios, convex hulls, concentric spheres, hyperbolic points and Fourier transforms are used to generate 1284-dimensional shape vectors. Subsequent descriptor reduction maximizing SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) result in an average of 41 descriptors (varying across k-folds). With non-normal multivariate distribution of heteroskedastic data, requirements for LDA (linear discriminant analysis) are not met. Thus, shrinkage parameters of RDA (regularized discriminant analysis) are optimized yielding a best performance with λ = 0.99 and γ = 0.001.Results: Receiver Operating Characteristic of a descriptive RDA yields an ideal Area Under the Curve of 1.0for all six categories. Predictive RDA results in an average CRR (correct recognition rate) of 97,22% under a 6 partition k-fold. Adding uniform noise within the range of one standard deviation degrades the average CRR to 71,3%.Conclusions: Digitized 3D surface shape data can be used to automatically classify idealized shape models of simulated skin injuries. Deriving some well established descriptors such as histograms, saddle shape of hyperbolic points or convex hulls with subsequent reduction of dimensionality while maximizing SNR seem to work well for the data at hand, as predictive RDA results in CRR of 97,22%. Objective basis for discrimination of non-overlapping hypotheses or categories are a major issue in medicolegal skin injury analysis and that is where this method appears to be strong. Technical surface quality is important in that adding noise clearly degrades CRR.Trial registration: This study does not cover the results of a controlled health care intervention as only plasticine was used. Thus, there was no trial registration.

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Gross and Histologic Postmortem Changes of the Skin

Cited by 29 publications

References 13 publications

Burial of Piglet Carcasses in Cement

Burial of Piglet Carcasses in Cement

Evaluation of Histologic Changes of the Skin in Postmortem Period

Skin injury model classification based on shape vector analysis

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