Usefulness of a latex agglutination assay for FDP D-dimer to demonstrate the presence of postmortem blood

D-dimer, a specific fragment resulting from degradation of cross-linked fibrin, is an essential marker for the diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Rapid assay for D-dimer using monoclonal antibody coated-latex particles might be useful for discriminating between postmortem and antemortem blood in bloodstains. We tried to detect D-dimer in nine postmortem blood samples by the rapid latex agglutination assay and to quantify them automatically using the latex photometric immunoassay system. The results showed that all samples were positive and that their amounts of D-dimer were 335–2,800 μg/ml (the normal blood level, <1 μg/ml; the pathogenic blood level with DIC, 1–100 μg/ml). Next, nine stains made of postmortem blood were examined by the rapid latex agglutination assay. The result showed that only one case (D-dimer 335 μg/ml blood) showed weak positive while the others (D-dimer 600–2,800 μg/ml blood) were positive. The present study indicates that the latex agglutination assay for D-dimer can be useful to demonstrate the presence of postmortem blood.