Capillary zone electrophoresis and artificial neural networks for estimation of the post-mortem interval (PMI) using electrolytes measurements in human vetreous humour
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2002 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | International journal of legal medicine |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Analytic chemistry |
| Keywords | capillary zone electrophoresis; artificial neural networks; post-mortem interval |
| Description | Determination of electrolyte concentrations in vitreous humour has long been considered an important tool in human death investigations for the estimation of the post-mortem interval. On the basis of its well known potential in ion analysis, capillary zone electrophoresis has recently been applied to achieve a rapid and simultaneous determination of inorganic ions in this extracellular fluid. In the present work, artificial neural networks were applied for modelling of the relationship of multicomponent CZE analysis of K+, NH4+, Na+ and Ba2+ ions in vitreous humour with PMI. In a study based on 61 cases with different causes of death and a known PMI ranging from 3 to 144 h, the use of ANNs considering all inorganic ion data from the human vitreous humour, achieved a substantial improvement of post-mortem interval prediction. Good linear correlation was observed and in comparison to the traditional linear least squares method applied only to K+ levels in the vitreous humour, the prediction of PMI with ANN was improved by a factor of 5 from 15 h to less than 3 h. |
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