METHOD FOR FIXING THE TIME LAPSED FROM THE MOMENT OF DEATH Russian patent published in 1995 - IPC

FIELD: medicine. SUBSTANCE: method involves sawing out bone discs 1.0-1.5 mm thick with a disc cutter from the calf bone and treating said discs with silver nitrate by Barnett-Burn method. Ascorbic acid contained in bone tissue reduces silver whose amount is determined with atom-absorption spectrophotometer and compared with reference data obtained by experiment. Thus, if the amount of reduced silver is 4,2± 0,4 mg the time lapsed from death (TLD) will be 24 hours; at 3,6± 0,3 mg, TLD - 2 days; at 2,8± 0,1 mg, TLD - 3 days; at 2,0± 0,2 mg - TLD - 4 days; at 1,0± 0,1 mg, TLD - 5 days; at 1,3± 0,2 mg, TLD - 6 days; at 1,0± 0,04 mg, TLD - 7 days; at 0,8± 0,02 mg, TLD - 8 days; at 0,6± 0,05 mg, TLD - 9 days and at 0,3± 0,01 mg, TLD - 10 days. EFFECT: determination of time lapsed after death can be fixed accurately and quickly without the use of costly means and equipment. 2 tbl