PMICALC: An R code-based software for estimating post-mortem interval (PMI) compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems

Muñoz-Barús, José I.; Rodríguez-Calvo, María Sol; Suárez-Peñaranda, José M.; Vieira, Duarte N.; Cadarso-Suárez, Carmen; Febrero-Bande, Manuel

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.10.006

« Previous Next »Forensic Science International
Volume 194, Issue 1 , Pages 49-52, 30 January 2010

PMICALC: An R code-based software for estimating post-mortem interval (PMI) compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems☆

José I. Muñoz-Barús
- Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, C/ San Francisco sn, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 981582327; fax: +34 981580336.
María Sol Rodríguez-Calvo
- Department of Pathology and Forensic Science, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
José M. Suárez-Peñaranda
- Department of Pathology and Forensic Science, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Duarte N. Vieira
- National Institute of Legal Medicine–Centre Branch, Coimbra, Portugal
Carmen Cadarso-Suárez
- Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Manuel Febrero-Bande
- Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Received 20 May 2009; received in revised form 18 September 2009; accepted 8 October 2009. published online 19 November 2009.

Abstract

In legal medicine the correct determination of the time of death is of utmost importance. Recent advances in estimating post-mortem interval (PMI) have made use of vitreous humour chemistry in conjunction with Linear Regression, but the results are questionable. In this paper we present PMICALC, an R code-based freeware package which estimates PMI in cadavers of recent death by measuring the concentrations of potassium ([K+]), hypoxanthine ([Hx]) and urea ([U]) in the vitreous humor using two different regression models: Additive Models (AM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), which offer more flexibility than the previously used Linear Regression. The results from both models are better than those published to date and can give numerical expression of PMI with confidence intervals and graphic support within 20min. The program also takes into account the cause of death.