Clotted blood as sign of alcohol intoxication: a retrospective study

A total of 138 autopsies performed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Münster between 1994 and 2006 were subdivided into two groups: (1) 69 asphyxial deaths with a blood alcohol level (BAL) > 1‰ and (2) 69 asphyxial deaths with a BAL of 0.00‰. The coagulation state in the central vessels was registered in all cases as fluid, compactly clotted or loosely clotted, and the post-mortem interval was recorded. Histology investigations were performed on the liver to analyze the incidence of hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis. Fisher’s exact test was performed to check for statistical significance. The blood was found to be clotted in 49.3% of the cases of group (1) and in 5.8% of group (2) ( p