In the current study, using portable optical coherence tomography, we evaluated 46 corneas of 23 individuals in a multicenter setting during the first 17 h after death. Twenty-three eyes were kept open, and twenty three were kept closed. Furthermore, the experiment was carried out for 12 samples in summer and 11 in winter. Our data show that postmortem corneal alterations largely depend on the phenomena of dehydration (in particular in open eyes) and swelling of the stroma in closed eyes, probably due in the first phase to hypoxia/anoxia and subsequently to the passage by osmosis of the aqueous humor from the anterior chamber to the corneal tissue. Our findings could have significant repercussions in forensic pathology for estimating the postmortem interval and transplantation to optimize the conservation of the tissue before the explant.

The Influence of Eyelid Position and Environmental Conditions on the Corneal Changes in Early Postmortem Interval: A Prospective, Multicentric OCT Study

Nioi, Matteo
Primo
;
Napoli, Pietro Emanuele
;
Demontis, Roberto;Chighine, Alberto;Fossarello, Maurizio;d'Aloja, Ernesto
2022-01-01

Abstract

In the current study, using portable optical coherence tomography, we evaluated 46 corneas of 23 individuals in a multicenter setting during the first 17 h after death. Twenty-three eyes were kept open, and twenty three were kept closed. Furthermore, the experiment was carried out for 12 samples in summer and 11 in winter. Our data show that postmortem corneal alterations largely depend on the phenomena of dehydration (in particular in open eyes) and swelling of the stroma in closed eyes, probably due in the first phase to hypoxia/anoxia and subsequently to the passage by osmosis of the aqueous humor from the anterior chamber to the corneal tissue. Our findings could have significant repercussions in forensic pathology for estimating the postmortem interval and transplantation to optimize the conservation of the tissue before the explant.
2022
cornea
corneal transplant
forensic imaging
forensic pathology
postmortem eye
postmortem interval
postmortem ocular changes
postmortem optical coherence tomography
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/353618
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