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Strasser, S.* ; Zink, A.* ; Kada, G.* ; Hinterdorfer, P.* ; Peschel, O.* ; Heckl, W.M.* ; Nerlich, A.G. ; Thalhammer, S.

Age determination of blood spots in forensic medicine by force spectroscopy.

Forensic Sci. Int. 170, 8-14 (2007)
DOI PMC
Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
We present a new tool for the estimation of the age of bloodstains, which could probably be used during forensic casework. For this, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) for high-resolution imaging of erythrocytes in a blood sample and the detection of elasticity changes on a nanometer scale. For the analytic procedure we applied a fresh blood spot on a glass slide and started the AFM detection after drying of the blood drop. In a first step, an overview image was generated showing the presence of several red blood cells, which could easily be detected due to their typical "doughnut-like" appearance. The consecutively morphological investigations in a timeframe of 4 weeks could not show any alterations. Secondly, AFM was used to test the elasticity by recording force-distance curves. The measurements were performed immediately after drying, 1.5 h, 30 h and 31 days. The conditions were kept constant at room temperature (20 degrees C) and a humidity of 30%. The obtained elasticity parameters were plotted against a timeline and repeated several times. The elasticity pattern showed a decrease over time, which are most probably influenced by the alteration of the blood spot during the drying and coagulation process. The preliminary data demonstrates the capacity of this method to use it for development of calibration curves, which can be used for estimation of bloodstain ages during forensic investigations.
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Publication type Article: Journal article
Document type Scientific Article
Corresponding Author
Keywords AFM; Force spectroscopy; Forensic medicine; Age determination; Blood spots
ISSN (print) / ISBN 0379-0738
e-ISSN 1872-6283
Journal Forensic Science International
Quellenangaben Volume: 170, Issue: 1, Pages: 8-14 Article Number: , Supplement: ,
Publisher Elsevier
Non-patent literature Publications
Reviewing status Peer reviewed
Institute(s) Institute of Radiation Protection (ISS)