Diatom Testing

Whenever a dead body is discovered in any water body, the prime question to be dealt by a forensic pathologist is to determine whether the death is due to drowning or it is the result of disposal after death. It is challenging to determine the cause of death in such cases and to differentiate a death due to drowning or other reasons. Drowning signs like pale skin colour, occurrence of froth in mouth and nostrils are clearly apparent in recent deaths due to drowning, however, with the passage of time these signs tend to disappear due to prolonged immersion of the dead body in the water body and advancing decomposition process. In case of drowning, water aspirated by the person into his lungs ultimately enters the main blood stream via alveoli in addition to the other micro-organisms and small impurities present in the water. Forceful inspiration and expiration causes the development of microscopic tears in the alveolar wall and the micro-organisms and micro-particles travel through these microscopic tears into the blood stream and ultimately to multiple organ sites and get deposited in the capillaries of these organs. These particles include a group of algae, commonly known as diatoms which tend to remain in the biological tissues and organs for longer periods of time and play a significant role in the determination of death due to drowning.