Levels of Total Protein and Urea in Postmortem Vitreous of Rabbits in Deaths by Drowning and Disguised as Drowning.

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the potential of total protein and urea as biomarkers in the postmortem determination and discrimination of death caused by drowning and death caused by strangulation disguised as drowning. The absence of Biomarkers that can accurately reveal the cause of death when the cause of death is disguised makes it very difficult for the coroners to determine the cause of death, the likelihood of a crime, and the perpetrator of a crime. Moreso, the fact that blood which is the classical specimen for medical investigation putrifies shortly after death and is therefore unsuitable for post-mortem analysis in situations where the cases are investigated long after death. These limitations are being exploited by murderers to survive judicial scrutiny and escape Justice. Why do homicidal crimes continue to increase? The research was structured into four groups of twenty-four rabbits each: two treatment (test) groups and two control groups based on specific means of death. Each group was administered a unique treatment in the form of the cause of death. In one test group, the death of the experimental subjects was caused by drowning. In a second test group, the death of the experimental subjects was caused by strangulation; thereafter, the dead subjects were drowned as a way of disguising or covering up the actual cause of death. Strangulation was done by hand, the thumbs of both hands were pressed directly against the neck of the experimental subjects forcefully and firmly, reflecting how most human homicides are carried out. The remaining two groups are the baseline controls, which were deaths by strangulation and deaths by chloroform intoxication. Each parameter quantity in the samples was determined in triplicates, and the data generated were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA; Version 18-21) and Microsoft Excel. One-way ANOVA (Post Hoc-LSD) was used in comparing the mean levels of the various vitreous parameters among the studied groups. Postmortem vitreous fluid analysis is a crucial technique in forensic pathology for diagnosing the cause of death, particularly in drowning cases. Researchers have examined the concentrations of total protein and urea in rabbits' vitreous humour to distinguish between drowning-related fatalities and those disguised as such. Keywords: Vitreous humour, postmortem, total protein, urea, death.