ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 October 1982
Page Count: 9

Experimental Determination of Time of Intracranial Hemorrhage by Spectrophotometric Analysis of Cerebrospinal Fluid
Marlet, JM
Lecturer, Social and Labor Medicine, and Medical Deontology, Medical Faculty, Oscar Freire Institute, University of Sao Paulo,

Barreto Fonseca, JP
Professor of forensic medicine, Medical Faculty and Law School, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas,

(Received 27 December 1981; accepted 4 February 1982)

Abstract

A method for determining the time elapsed after a cerebrovascular accident by exanaination of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is described. Hemorrhagic intracranial trauma was simulated in dogs by injecting blood into the subarachnoid space. Daily samples of cerebrospinal fluid were gathered during the subsequent 14 days, and the concentrations of oxyhemoglobin and bilirubin were measured using spectrophotometric methods. The hemoglobin coefficient (HC), defined as the ratio of the oxyhemoglobin concentration to the sum of the concentrations of the cerebrospinal fluid pigments, and the hemoglobin-bilirubin index (HBI), the ratio of the oxyhemoglobin and the bilirubin concentrations, are found to permit accurate calculation of the time elapsed after the hemorrhage.

Keywords:
pathology and biology, hemorrhage, cerebrospinal fluid, hemoglobin, bilirubin, spectrophotometry

Paper ID: JFS12205J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS12205J
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