Journal of Pathology, Communicable Diseases and Preventive Medicines

Author: Ayushi Khandelwal

Abstarct: Diatoms, the most common kind of phytoplankton, are a large genus of eukaryotic algae found in a wide range of aquatic settings. These are important for connecting suspects and victims to crime scenes in or near water. When a person drowns, water is breathed into the lungs and into the circulatory system, therefore any diatoms present in the drowning medium can eventually make their way into internal organs such as a drowning victim's bone marrow, spleen, and brain. Any diatom detected in these organs would thus indicate ante mortem water inhalation, implying that drowning was either a cause or a contributing factor to death. One of the most significant challenges in the research of drowning in the past has been the search for a sensitive, precise, and simply applied test for the cause of death. As a result, the diatom test has emerged as the most important laboratory method for detecting drowning. In the current study, five drowning cases were investigated using the "Diatom Test" in the forensic science laboratory in Madhuban, Haryana (India). Four of these instances were determined to be positive for drowning, while one was judged to be negative.

Keywords: Diatoms; Diatom Test; Drowning.