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Nasal ciliary motility: a new tool in estimating the time of death

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Abstract

Determination of time since death is one of the most difficult and crucial issue in forensic medicine. Apart from body cooling, which is commonly used in the early postmortem interval (PMI), supravital reactions are the most interesting postmortem changes for time of death estimation. Nasal ciliary motility has been occasionally observed in postmortem period although no studies have focused on this phenomenon for forensic purposes. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of ciliary motility as a potential tool in estimating the time of death. Specimens of ciliated epithelium from 100 consecutive cadavers were obtained by scraping the nasal mucosa at three different postmortem intervals. The samples were then smeared on a slide, and an in vitro evaluation of ciliary movement was analyzed by phase-contrast microscopy. A postmortem nasal ciliary motility was observed, and a statistically significant relationship between decreasing ciliary movements and increasing postmortem interval was detected even in presence of putrefactive changes of nasal ultrastructure integrity. Some peculiar causes of death seem to influence ciliary motility in the early PMI, while no significant correlations with sex or age were observed. According to the results of this study, postmortem evaluation of nasal ciliary motility may be a bona fide and a feasible option for estimating the time of death.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dr. Antonio Moschetta for his critical review of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Maria Carolina Romanelli, Lucia Tattoli, Giancarlo Di Vella & Biagio Solarino

  2. Department of Otolaryngology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Matteo Gelardi & Maria Luisa Fiorella

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  1. Maria Carolina Romanelli
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  2. Matteo Gelardi
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  3. Maria Luisa Fiorella
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  4. Lucia Tattoli
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  5. Giancarlo Di Vella
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  6. Biagio Solarino
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Correspondence to Biagio Solarino.

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Romanelli, M.C., Gelardi, M., Fiorella, M.L. et al. Nasal ciliary motility: a new tool in estimating the time of death. Int J Legal Med 126, 427–433 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-012-0682-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-012-0682-x

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