ArticleInternational journal of legal medicine2020
A field study to evaluate PMI estimation methods for advanced decomposition stages.
Article in International journal of legal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Forensic applications of postmortem protein analysis in estimating the time since death: a systematic review.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Pooled it
- "Omics" and Postmortem Interval Estimation: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- The blow fly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as a forensic indicator: Thermal requirements of the immature stages and field validation of thermal summation data.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- A Step Forward in Post-Mortem Interval Estimation: Multivariate Analysis of Ammonium, Albumin, and Potassium Levels in Vitreous Humor.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Postmortem interval estimation through skeletal muscle protein degradation: a comprehensive review.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Review
- Evaluation of post-mortem interval based on gingival tissue hypoxia inducible factor-1α gene expression.The Journal of forensic odonto-stomatology · 2026Article
- Protein degradation in human skeletal muscle: advancing postmortem interval estimation under natural outdoor conditions.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Thanatological Epigenetics as a Postmortem Forensic Tool: A Contextual Call for Epigenetic Clock Research in Asia.Academic forensic pathology · 2026Article
- Inter-operator reliability of the total decomposition score (TDS) method for estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI) in outdoor cases.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Validating the use of a local developmental dataset for Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to estimate the time of placement of various carrion types and sizes in Texas, United States, during summer.Journal of medical entomology · 2026Article
- Factors influencing the progression of post-mortem changes between scene and autopsy.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Recent Advances in Forensic Medicine at the Horizon of Omics Sciences and New Biomarkers for Postmortem Interval Estimation.Maedica · 2025Review
- A comparative study of decomposition and associated insects on pig carcasses buried at 40 and 80 cm depths.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Microbial genomics: a potential toolkit for forensic investigations.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2025Review
- Exploring radiomic features of lateral cerebral ventricles in postmortem CT for postmortem interval estimation.International journal of legal medicine · 2025Article
- Postmortem submersion interval prediction model based on the rat muscle microbiome.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Pectoralis minor index range of healthy 18-24-year-old students from a Kenyan public university.The South African journal of physiotherapy · 2025Article
- UPLC/Q-TOF MS-based femoral muscle metabolomic analysis under high-temperature: a proof of concept for postmortem interval estimation.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Medico-Legal Applications of the Human Microbiome and Critical Issues Due to Environmental Transfer: A Review.Microorganisms · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Estimating the postmortem interval (PMI) is one of the major tasks and a continuous challenge in forensic pathology. It is often an exclusion process of available methods, which ultimately can lead to an unsatisfactory outcome due to poor reliability. This problem is most acute in the late PMI, when decomposition proceeds and some methods (such as rigor, livor, and algor mortis) are no longer applicable. Several methods, such as forensic entomology, skeletal muscle protein degradation, and the study of body decomposition by application of a morphological scoring, are expected to provide further information; however, all have certain limitations and weaknesses. Availability of a tool-box of methods allows a case-specific selection of the most appropriate one(s), or eventually provides improvements in the overall accuracy and precision of the PMI estimation by merging and combining methods. To investigate practical (field) application, eventual interferences, and/or synergetic effects, as well as the robustness of these methods towards specific influencing factors, a field study was conducted, using eight pig cadavers of different body weights and physical coverage, left to decompose under natural conditions for 16 days. Morphological changes during decomposition were assessed using the total body score (TBS), muscle samples were collected to analyze protein degradation, and insect colonization was evaluated. The results reveal strengths and current limitations of all tested methods, as well as promising synergistic effects, and thus, provide a baseline for targeted future research.
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