Portable optical coherence tomography (p-OCT) permits rapid, non-contact, high-resolution imaging of the cornea and anterior segment directly at the body, without enucleation or conventional patient positioning. This capability is relevant to forensic practice because postmortem ocular tissues change continuously and are strongly affected by eyelid position, environmental exposure, and acquisition geometry. Published studies have established the feasibility and reliability of p-OCT pachymetry in ovine eyes and human cadavers, but their procedures have not previously been condensed into a single operator-oriented protocol. This Technical Note presents an evidence-informed workflow for postmortem anterior-segment p-OCT. It standardizes specimen positioning, environmental documentation, corneal-reflex alignment, pachymetric-map acquisition, targeted line scanning, image acceptance, replicate measurements, manual caliper measurement after segmentation failure, data preservation, and morphological terminology. The protocol is supported by previously published reliability datasets comprising 46 ovine globes and 58 human eyes, together with human open–closed eye observations and OCT–histology correlation studies. The primary quantitative endpoint is automated mean central corneal thickness within the 0–2 mm zone. Manual measurements are treated as secondary, point-based estimates and must not be pooled with automated values without validation. No isolated OCT sign should be converted into a postmortem-interval estimate. The proposed procedure is intended to improve reproducibility and enable external validation; it is not presented as a validated universal PMI model or formal international consensus standard.
POSTMORTEM-OCT: A standardized protocol for portable anterior-segment optical coherence tomography in forensic practice
Nioi, Matteo
Primo
;Napoli, Pietro Emanuele;d'Aloja, Ernesto
2026-01-01
Abstract
Portable optical coherence tomography (p-OCT) permits rapid, non-contact, high-resolution imaging of the cornea and anterior segment directly at the body, without enucleation or conventional patient positioning. This capability is relevant to forensic practice because postmortem ocular tissues change continuously and are strongly affected by eyelid position, environmental exposure, and acquisition geometry. Published studies have established the feasibility and reliability of p-OCT pachymetry in ovine eyes and human cadavers, but their procedures have not previously been condensed into a single operator-oriented protocol. This Technical Note presents an evidence-informed workflow for postmortem anterior-segment p-OCT. It standardizes specimen positioning, environmental documentation, corneal-reflex alignment, pachymetric-map acquisition, targeted line scanning, image acceptance, replicate measurements, manual caliper measurement after segmentation failure, data preservation, and morphological terminology. The protocol is supported by previously published reliability datasets comprising 46 ovine globes and 58 human eyes, together with human open–closed eye observations and OCT–histology correlation studies. The primary quantitative endpoint is automated mean central corneal thickness within the 0–2 mm zone. Manual measurements are treated as secondary, point-based estimates and must not be pooled with automated values without validation. No isolated OCT sign should be converted into a postmortem-interval estimate. The proposed procedure is intended to improve reproducibility and enable external validation; it is not presented as a validated universal PMI model or formal international consensus standard.
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