ArticleInternational journal of legal medicine2025
The diatom test for drowning: an unreported source of diatom contamination.
Article in International journal of legal medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Species discordance in diatom testing for drowning diagnosis: a biological passive sampling hypothesis with forensic implications.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Technical note: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of diatom testing in methomyl poisoning case.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Diatom Analysis in Drowning: A Critical Review of Reliability, Contamination, and Medico-Legal Interpretation.Cureus · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
We describe here a previously unreported source of diatom contamination that may prove relevant in routine diatom analysis in suspected drowning cases. Glass microscope slides utilized in the process, during their manufacture, undergo a washing process, after which, diatomaceous earth (kieselguhr, fossil diatoms) is added to avoid producing stuck slides during the last rinse. The diatomaceous earth can be removed at this point only by means of aggressive cleaning, but the possibility exists that some fossil diatoms will remain on the slides. This potential contamination source explained a recurrent and otherwise puzzling appearance of Aulacoseira diatom genus in samples both from definite drowning cases and from non-drowned control cases. Discrimination by expert diatomologists between present-day fresh diatoms and fossil diatoms, together with awareness of the ubiquity of diatoms in nature and of their extensive use in the manufacturing industry, corroborate our view that potential sources of laboratory contamination should not be a rational impediment to performing diatom tests.
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