A novel method for the diagnosis of drowning by detection of Aeromonas sobria with PCR method

Aoyagi, Miwako; Iwadate, Kimiharu; Fukui, Kenji; Abe, Shuntaro; Sakai, Kentaro; Maebashi, Kyoko; Ochiai, Eriko; Nakamura, Mihoko

doi:10.1016/j.legalmed.2009.07.003

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Volume 11, Issue 6 , Pages 257-259, November 2009

A novel method for the diagnosis of drowning by detection of Aeromonas sobria with PCR method

Miwako Aoyagi
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 5405 1966; fax: +81 3 3435 7306.
Kimiharu Iwadate
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
Kenji Fukui
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
Shuntaro Abe
- Department of Forensic Pathology and Science, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki-city, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
Kentaro Sakai
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
Kyoko Maebashi
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
Eriko Ochiai
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan
Mihoko Nakamura
- Department of Forensic Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, 105-8461 Tokyo, Japan

Received 12 March 2009; received in revised form 7 July 2009; accepted 13 July 2009. published online 18 September 2009.

Abstract

The acid digestion method has been widely used for the diagnosis of death by drowning, but it is not always sensitive. However, there has been no definitive method to replace acid digestion until now. We speculate that bacteria are more useful markers than plankton for the diagnosis of death by drowning. In this study, from the preserved blood samples of 32 freshwater drowning cases, specific DNA fragments of Aeromonas sobria, one of the most common aquatic bacteria, were examined using PCR. The DNA fragments of the bacterium were detected from 27 of 32 cases with first round PCR or nested-PCR. The remaining 5 cases in which bacterial DNA was not detected had longer storage periods for the blood samples and shorter time intervals from drowning to death. These results indicate that the present method can be applied to the diagnosis of death by drowning.

Keywords: Drowning, PCR, Aquatic bacteria, Aeromonas