PhD defence Hendrik Stigter

Keywords: PMI, Muscle, Excitability, Supravitality 

"Supravitality, Post-mortem muscle excitability"

Supravital Muscle Reaction (SMR) can be provoked mechanically with a reflex hammer. SMR is related to post-mortem energy supply in skeletal muscle cells. The mechanisms causing the response is not exactly known. In this thesis two hypotheses are suggested. 

Investigating post-mortem excitability of skeletal muscle by provoking supravital muscle reaction (SMR) using a reflex hammer, appears to be a fast, cheap and easy-to-learn method. In addition, provoking SMR has shown added value in daily casework. Only sex had a significant relationship with the outcome of provoking SMR. A positive SMR was observed significantly more among males compared to females, which could be due to physiological differences between males and females. 

Based on this dissertation, there are no cogent arguments restraining this fast, low-cost, non-invasive, and easy-to-learn method, to be structurally included as an additional tool for PMI estimation as part of the compound method.

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