Often,
pleural effusion is noted at autopsy when the cause of death is
drowning or diseases such as heart, renal and
liver failure. Several studies have established a correlation between the concentrations of
electrolytes in
pleural effusion and the post-mortem interval (PMI) or those concentrations and
drowning site. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the amount of
pleural effusion, concentrations of
electrolytes and total
protein in
pleural effusion, by integrated interpretation using various factors such as the deceased's gender, age, cause of death,
drowning site, PMI and body temperature. We included 40 cadavers (26 male, 14 female) with >20-mL
pleural effusion, which were categorised into four groups as follows: freshwater
drowning; brackish water
drowning; seawater
drowning (
drowning group); and not
drowning. An equation derived to assess the lung weight revealed that the
drowning site affected the lung weight. An equation for the amount of
pleural effusion in the
drowning group for the first time revealed that the amount of
pleural effusion was directly proportional to the PMI. Using an equation to assess the PMI, we could estimate the PMI within 13.0-13.2 h in cases with >20-mL
pleural effusion. Despite a small number of cases in the present study, we attained exciting results from the integrated statistical analysis.