Effect of Time Since Death on Morphological Changes of Red and White Blood Cells-An Autopsy based Study at S.M.S. Medical College & Attached Group of Hospitals, Jaipur During the Year 2016-2017

Abstract

The proper estimation of time since death sometimes gives important hints for solving the crime to the
investigating agencies and punishing the true offender and proper administration of justice. Numerous
cells in blood show varying degree of post-mortem changes and these changes vary with regards to the
post-mortem interval. Therefore, this hospital based descriptive observational study were carried out at
the Department of Forensic Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur to study the estimation of time since
death by morphological changes in red & white blood cells. The present study proposes that lymphocytes
are the most resistant blood cells as regards to degeneration after death. Other white blood cells and also red
blood cells also show certain pattern of degradation which can be correlated to the time passed since death.
Although a single cell change viewed in isolation may not do wonders in framing opinion of time elapsed
since death but a study of morphological appearance of various cells at the time of examination may lead
to meaningful inferences. Thus we concluded that the present study proves that changes in the morphology
of red blood cells & white blood cells can be helpful as supplementary procedure for estimating time since
death.