Studies on the estimation of postmortem time: an application of interactive image analysis system.

On the supposition of the human violent death cases, the liver cell area and its nucleus area of the mice which were left out in the several experimental conditions (Temperature: 4°C, 20°C and 37°C; Period: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 days) were measured for estimating the postmortem time by the interactive image analysis system with computer management. By using this system, it is possible to quantify the histological alteration and morphological changes in cells resulted from autolytic deterioration for the postmortem intervals. The ratio of the nucleus area to the cell area which was measured by this system could be wide application to the estimation of death in forensic sciences. This system will offer the potential to the forensic pathologists for deciding the time of death.