Spectrometric evaluation of post-mortem optical skin changes.

As to their optical properties, the components of human skin can be divided into two different categories: the light-scattering components shown as peaks and those absorbing light appearing as dips in the reflectance spectrum. As the post-mortem interval progresses, the concentration of scatterers and absorbers and thus the reflectance spectra change due to post-mortem tissue breakdown and degradation. Based on a total number of 532 reflectance spectrometric measurements in 195 deceased, a characteristic change in the reflectance spectra could be documented in the post-mortem course. Subsequently, an algorithm to calculate the post-mortem interval was developed by analysing the reflectance spectrometric extrema.