[Altered water fractions in the blood and its components after drowning].

Previous studies have shown that signs of drowning in fresh water are of low diagnostic value. Regardless of the mechanism of drowning death, a certain amount of water enters the blood and somehow changes its composition. The objective of this study was to determine water fractions in the blood of drowned subjects. It included 30 cases of drowning deaths. The control group comprised 30 cases of hanging and 7 bodies found in water after the death on land. The water content in the blood was measured in accordance with the universally accepted diagnostic procedure from the difference of freezing temperatures of free and bound water. It was shown that arterial blood and its constituent components as well as whole venous blood and concentrated red cells mass of drowned subjects contained significantly more water than the blood of those who died on land. The rise was in the first place attributable to the selective increase of the free water fraction. Changes of water content in the blood were virtually identical in the drowned subjects who died from asphyxia and from aspiration of water. The data obtained in this study may be used as additional diagnostic signs of drowning death.