Perimortem Window
Definition
The brief interval before and immediately after cardiac arrest in which injuries may be inflicted during life but produce absent or minimal vital reaction. The correct expert opinion is 'consistent with immediately fatal antemortem wound or postmortem wound' rather than a binary classification.
Related terms
- Agonal Period
- The final period of physiological life between loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest. Injuries inflicted in this period are legally antemortem but...
- Fibronectin
- Glycoprotein deposited in wound matrix within 12-24 hours of antemortem injury. Detectable by immunostaining; serves as an intermediate-stage vital-reaction marker when PMN...
- Histamine Vital-Reaction Marker
- Biochemical indicator released from mast cells within minutes of tissue injury. A 50% or greater histamine elevation at the wound margin versus...
- PMN (Polymorphonuclear Neutrophil) Infiltration
- The first histological cellular marker of antemortem vital reaction. Begins emigrating from wound-margin venules within 1-2 hours of injury; histologically visible at...
- Vital Reaction
- The suite of physiological responses to tissue injury that require a functioning cardiovascular and cellular metabolism to occur: haemorrhage, neutrophil infiltration, vasoactive...
Explained in
- Antemortem vs Post-Mortem Injury DistinctionThe brief interval before and immediately after cardiac arrest in which injuries may be inflicted during life but produce absent or minimal vital reaction. The...