Postmortem Microbial Analysis of Vitreous Humour to Differentiate Antemortem Alcohol Consumption from Neoformation in RTA Victims: An Autopsy-Based Study in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

This study aims to differentiate ethanol resulting from true alcohol consumption and ethanol synthesized postmortem by microorganisms in forensic cases. The research was conducted using vitreous humour (VH) samples from 100 road traffic accident (RTA) fatalities at the City Mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya, with a postmortem interval (PMI) ranging from 12 to 72 hours. Ethanol concentrations were quantified using validated forensic toxicological protocols, and microbial isolates were categorized based on their potential to produce ethanol.
Of the 100 samples, 21% tested positive for ethanol. Among these, 50% showed microbial growth, with Klebsiella spp. and Clostridium spp. being the most frequent microbial isolates in ethanol-positive cases. Both of these microorganisms are known to produce ethanol through fermentation. These findings underscore the importance of integrating toxicological and microbiological analyses to differentiate between ethanol from antemortem consumption and postmortem microbial synthesis.