Kaliszan Michał
Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, ul. Dębowa 23, Gdańsk 80-204, Poland.
J Forensic Sci. 2011 Sep;56(5):1310-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01801.x. Epub 2011 May 6.
Estimation of the time of death (TOD) is a very important task of forensic pathologist, and measurement of body temperature is a method deemed to be most precise during the initial postmortem period. The study aimed at verification of the significance of airflow present in the room where a corpse is found on body cooling process and hence on determination of the TOD. The experiment was performed in pigs during which the postmortem temperature of the eye, muscles, and rectum was recorded--in still air and with generated draft in the room. The results showed that the moderate airflow present in the experimental conditions did not significantly affect the course of cooling of the investigated body sites. Despite moderate wind generated in the room, the air movement close to pigs' bodies was actually minimal. This allowed to conclude that to evaluate the TOD most precisely, one should first have reliable data on the actual velocity of air in the direct vicinity of the body rather than relying on subjective sensation of the draft and using various unnecessary corrective coefficients for TOD calculation.
死亡时间（TOD）的估算是法医病理学家的一项非常重要的任务，而测量体温是死后初期被认为最精确的方法。该研究旨在验证发现尸体的房间内的气流对尸体冷却过程以及由此对死亡时间确定的影响。实验在猪身上进行，记录了在静止空气中以及房间内产生气流时眼睛、肌肉和直肠的死后温度。结果表明，实验条件下存在的适度气流并未显著影响所研究身体部位的冷却过程。尽管房间内产生了适度的风，但猪身体附近的空气流动实际上很小。由此可以得出结论，为了最精确地评估死亡时间，首先应该获得尸体直接附近实际空气流速的可靠数据，而不是依赖于气流的主观感觉并在计算死亡时间时使用各种不必要的校正系数。
