Postmortem Internal Gas Reservoir Monitoring Using GCxGC-HRTOFMS

Forensic investigations often require postmortem examination of a body. However,
the collection of evidence during autopsy is often destructive, meaning that the body can no longer
be examined in its original state. In order to obtain an internal image of the body, whole body
postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has proven to be a valuable non-destructive tool and is
currently used in medicolegal centers. PMCT can also be used to visually locate gas reservoirs inside
a cadaver, which upon analysis can provide useful information regarding very volatile compounds
that are produced after death. However, the non-targeted profiling of all potential volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) present in these reservoirs has never been attempted. The aim of this study was
to investigate the VOC profile of these reservoirs and to evaluate potential uses of such information
to document circumstances surrounding death, cause of death and body taphonomy. Comprehensive
two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight high-resolution mass spectrometry
(GC GC-HRTOF-MS) was used for VOC measurements. This study demonstrated that the chemical
composition of VOCs within the gas reservoirs differed between locations within a single body
but also between individuals. In the future, this work could be expanded to investigate a novel,
non-destructive cadaver screening approach prior to full autopsy procedures.