Citation

Ginn C, Ateh D, Martin J. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2020; 71: e101933.

Affiliation

Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London Medical School, Queen Mary, University of London, 4 Newark Street, London, E1 2AT, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2020.101933

PMID

32342903

Abstract

This review assesses the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) in establishing a cause of death in the autopsy setting. A search was performed of the PubMed, Medline, Embase, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases using the terms point-of-care, autopsy, post-mortem, cause of death and forensics. This search revealed some evidence for the efficacy of POCT for autopsy derived samples in the detection of viruses, sepsis and abnormal glucose levels. Other potential applications for forensic POCT include drug abuse screening, detection of alcoholic and diabetic acidoketosis and carbon monoxide poisoning. Additional studies are needed to evaluate to the accuracy of POCT compared to standard laboratory testing and to more fully understand post-mortem derived sample errors.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Autopsy; POCT; Point-of-care-testing; Post-mortem