窒息急死死体解剖事例における血中アルコール濃度と軟凝血形成との関連について

Abstract

The fluidity of cadaveric blood is a major finding of asphyxial deaths. Although soft blood clots are present in asphyxial cadaveric blood containing alcohol, only a few reports have statistically compared blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and soft blood clot formation. Using cadavers, German forensic pathologists found a positive correlation between BAC and the incidence of soft blood clots. Others found racial differences in sensitivity to ethanol due to polymorphisms in alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. We therefore set a low cutoff value (BAC>0.1mg/ml) and reexamined cases of asphyxial death-with or without ethanolin cadaveric blood obtained from Japanese cadavers. We divided 150 autopsy cases into two groups based on the cause of death: asphyxial deaths (n=74) and others (n=76).There were no significant between group differences in BAC; however, patients with asphyxial death exhibited significantly increased soft blood clot formation. When we divided the asphyxial group by BAC, there were 17 cases with BAC>0.1 and 57 cases with BAC=0mg/l. Soft blood clot formation was significantly increased in the BAC>0.1 group. Even a very low BAC is correlated with soft blood clot formation. Alcohol consumption should be considered if a soft blood clot is seen during autopsy.