Abstract

MONTEFUSCO-PEREIRA, Carlos Victor  and  DE MATOS ALVES PINTO, Luciana. Vitreous humour as a biofluid of clinical importance in forensic sciences. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2016, vol.50, n.1, pp.27-35. ISSN 0325-2957.

The vitreous humor, body or fluid is the clear gel that fills the vitreous chamber or posterior chamber of the eyeball, whose functions are to give volume to the eye, serve as retina support and maintain its transparency to allow light beams to reach the retina. This study addresses the vitreous humor as an important sample for clinical biochemistry, pointing out its value for forensic sciences. The vitreous humor is a mandatory sample in cases of suspected, unexplained or violent deaths and its location gives a sterile medium for the postmortem confirmation of alcohol intake. It plays a role in the measurement of drugs, estimation of postmortem interval, and definition of diabetes, dehydration and renal failure. Factors such as drug postmortem diffusion in the vitreous humour coming from the brain, along with factors of the analytical method such asthe collection process, calibration and statistical processing of data, make it difficult to interpret and add more variables to the cases investigated. HV use should be promoted in countries like Brazil and in Latin America, which possess trained professionals to address and use this biological sample, but who do not work with it frequently.

Keywords : Vitreous body; Toxicology; Legal medicine; Abuse drugs; Postmortem changes; Forensic.

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