Postmortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Quantitation of fructosamine and glycated hemoglobin.

Fructosamine and glycated hemoglobin were determined in samples from 52 cadavers autopsied in the Forensic Pathology Institute of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). The population studied comprised 15 adult subjects with history of diabetes mellitus and 37 adult non-diabetic subjects. The fructosamine/total protein ratio was 1.7 times higher in diabetic than in non-diabetic subjects, as was the case for glycated hemoglobin. Measurement of glycated serum protein appears to be a useful tool for the postmortem diagnosis of fatal diabetic coma and glucose concentration before death.